It’s Sunday afternoon, wet, cold and dismal. Just the right time of the day to sit down with a mug of freshly brewed coffee, a custard slice and my laptop. Time to catch up on the very many blogs that I have not had time to read recently. I realise how important is it to read other blogs, and leave comments, but it needs time to be set aside to do this.
I read Patient Gardener‘s post about the story behind the name of her blog, which in turn took me to Garden Faerie’s Musings. Here she asks “How did you pick your blog or social media name?” It was interesting to read the many paths that lead to some fascinating and diverse blog names.
Diana at Elephant’s Eye suggested to me, at the end of July, that it might be an idea to explain the reason behind the name of my blog because readers are interested. This was because I changed the name at that time and for a very good reason.
Twitter was the catalyst for my blog. A friend suggested Twitter, which was something I had looked at but dismissed as a medium that I wouldn’t really use (silly me!). After a couple of weeks, I was hooked and I am known by @ronitee. Very quickly I had some followers, one of whom was Helen from Patient Gardener. I started to read her blog and those she had listed on her blogroll, and was totally inspired. The thought of writing a blog was an exciting challenge. After all, you are never too old to learn new things and discovering how to be a blogger sounded a fun thing to do.
I entered 2011, with trepidation knowing that at the end of July I was going to be 60 – a milestone in anyone’s life and one I was not looking forward to. With this in mind, I decided to start my blog as a way to chart my journey towards my 60th birthday, not intending to go beyond. I called it “Hurtling towards 60“ for that is what I felt I was doing, hurtling.
The blogs I read were all about gardens, and as I love my garden, gardening and anything to do with gardens, I used that as the core for my writing. That way I could share the joy, and occasional frustrations, of gardening with others.
I had a choice of WordPress or Blogger as they seem to be the two main blogging platforms. WordPress was chosen and a blog was born.
One of my many failings in life is that I give up on things too easily, so I wasn’t expecting what was to evolve over the months. By the time July came, I had become a Blogger, with people who actually wanted to read my blog and even better some actually follow it.
I wasn’t going to stop then but it did mean a change of name because I had done my hurtling towards 60, so it became “Hurtled to 60 and Now Beyond“. I have developed a love of writing and photography and it all started with a Tweet.
I now have second blog, for photography – something else that was new to me this year. The reason behind this blog was because for my 60th birthday I was bought a Digital SLR camera. Not only have I discovered the love of writing a blog, I have also developed a passion for photography.
The blog is called “A New Decade Dawns” and I am sure that title doesn’t need an explanation. This time I used Blogger so I have foot in both camps now. If in 10 years I am still taking photos, maybe I will have to change that name also, to “Another New Decade Dawns”. Who knows what the future holds.
