On February 17, 2008, at 5:45 pm, I published the first post on this blog – a blog that had the bare minimum in design. There weren’t a lot of options available in those days on Blogger. And I didn’t know what the heck I was doing.

Here’s the text of that first post:

Welcome to my blog, Mockingbird Hill Cottage! I have been reading and commenting on various blogs for a long time and now I have finally started my own. Believe me, I will be learning as I go. I’m looking forward to meeting new friends and sharing my thoughts, projects and experiences with you. Mockingbird Hill Cottage is so named because my favorite book of all time is To Kill a Mockingbird and my maiden name is Hill. It is also a salute to a mockingbird that serenaded us every night with the most beautiful music when we lived in California. I hope your day is a happy one.

That’s it. I didn’t know how to insert a photo within the post. I posted a photo of the cottage separately, about a half hour later. I had one comment, from dear Rachel of A Romantic Porch. As you all know, starting and building a blog takes time. There were many, many times that I had no comments on a post. I just kept going. No one in my private life knew about the blog except my husband. (There are still many people in my professional life that have no idea I write a blog!) Eventually, I told my sister. Then a few friends. I didn’t tell my parents for at least a year. I was shy about it, I guess.

The other day, I was thinking about blogging and what drew me to it. Of course, there are the obvious things: writing, photography, being able to journal in a new medium, sharing my story.

But what really smacked me upside the head was this realization:

True. I have always been that way. I work in a very verbal profession that is full of all sorts of personalities. I taught for many years. And at the end of the day, or the play, or the semester, I would retreat to my apartment or house and be perfectly happy being with myself. And now, Don, of course. I can spend great amounts of time alone.

But I like to talk. Always have. I used to get in trouble for talking too much in elementary school.

So what does a person like that do? Talk on the phone? Well, sometimes, but I worked in Customer Service for many years before I went to grad school and the phone long ago lost its appeal for me.

A person like that writes. And in this digital age, she writes a blog. And through that blog, she can be chatty and share her thoughts and creations and ups and downs with friends from all over the world.

And her world can change.

Indeed, my world has changed since I started blogging five years ago. It’s hard to quantify just how much blogging means to me. Suffice it to say, I have loved every minute of this blogging adventure. I have learned a great deal, more than I thought this non-technical head of mine could ever take in. I have met the most wonderful people, some of whom have been with me from the beginning. Others have come and gone, just as in life.

This journal of mine has enabled me to hone my writing skills and my photography skills. It has given me a platform of sorts in which to share whatever silly, serious, whimsical, joyful, everyday, heartbreaking or heartfelt thoughts I have on any given day.

But what makes it powerful beyond words is you. So I say, quite simply, thank you.

And because it’s my fifth anniversary of blogging, I have a little giveaway planned to commemorate the occasion.

Each of you who leaves a comment will be entered in a little Obsession Scarf Giveaway. The winner will win an Obsession Scarf crocheted in one of these colors (in my favorite silk and bamboo yarn.) Your choice. There’s the pastel blue you’ve seen before, the apple green and a more royal blue that I’ve not used before.  It will be crocheted just for you.

So leave a comment. If you’ve already purchased a scarf in the past, enter anyway. You can give it as a gift. (You notice I don’t say ‘gift it.’ That turn of phrase, unfortunately, seems to be increasingly popular. However, the last time I looked, gift was a noun.)

There I go again.

I haven’t been able to visit many blogs this week. The fact is, I’ve been feeling under the weather with terrible sinus problems. I kept going through all the painting and things that needed to be done around here, but I feel just plain yucky. And I’ve sort of crashed. I’ve been visiting, just not commenting. Hopefully, I will be feeling much better soon.

In closing, I send my love and thanks to all of you. You have enriched my life beyond measure.

Happy Sunday,