It occurred to me this morning that yesterday was my blog’s first birthday. And I'm a year older too. Obviously.I’m very ashamed to say that, despite starting out a year ago with good intentions (again) of losing weight, I didn’t.
I’m sitting here more or less the same weight as a year ago. A little of it has been lost and then regained.
Hmmm.
Still, to cheer me up in my shame, how about commenting on my blog, some of you people who show up in the site meter but who lurk furtively in the shadows? For example, someone at Salford University (I assume it’s one person rather than a vast horde of occasional readers) regularly has a look. Hello. Who are you? How are you? Are you having a nice day? And how are you, person in Amsterdam, Noord-Holland? Has it been sunny with you?
Four people in China tuned in yesterday – very unusual, and four, in different towns? How did that happen? I’d love to go to China.
I used to wonder how it was that so many people turned to my blog for 0 seconds, but then very recently I read the site meter FAQs and discovered that unless people go to a second page, the meter can’t tell how long they’ve been on the one page, and so this counts as 0 seconds. This is quite cheering. I myself often have a quick peek at blogs to see if there’s anything new and go on my way if not, but I couldn’t ever understand how anyone could do this in no time flat. (I did admit a few weeks ago that I had a habit of not reading the instructions unless there was no other way of working things out.)
I’ve been spending some time today saving my early blogs for posterity, in case Blogger decides to delete me. (Like Sheepcat.) Goodness, it’s been boring, and I’ve only done March, April and May last year. I suppose I should save them as I write them. Maybe I will in future. I ask myself precisely why I’m saving them, and I’m not sure. Poor old posterity will actually have far too many of my words of wisdom when I’m gone, since I write a lot of letters and have also been writing a diary – not every day, but quite often – since I was 15.
I’m off to read “Slaughterhouse Five”, lent to me by an insistent student. The title’s very offputting, but then so is “Pride and Prejudice”.
What lovely colours in your stained glass photo, Isabelle. Don't know the first thing about site meter, so can't help you there. I do think it's amazing that you can pin down where all the peepers are peeping from! As for the weight struggle , you probably need a little padding up there in Bonnie cold Scotland.
ReplyDeleteRegarding your comment on my last post---pools are not really posh [a word that makes me giggle] here in Florida[though they would be in Ireland]. More a device to keep from melting when the temps soar.
You could let your son get a cat, on the understanding that when he moves out to a place of his own, or gets married, the cat goes with!I used to be such a dog person. But this particular cat, we figure, was a dog in a former life! As for holes in the garden--not an issue, since he's indoors most of the time and litter box trained. He'd be too tempting a morsel for the owls and hawks around here!
Think you must be getting some of the same visitors as me - it fascinates me that while I'm asleep all these different people pop in and see what I have to say but it would be so nice if they left a 'G'day' message. The Salford Uni person visits me too, have also had one from China, and from Finland, Dubai, Venezuela and now quite a few from USA and Canada. Makes me feel real quite special!
ReplyDeleteHi Isabelle-
ReplyDeleteI am the lurker from Amsterdam! I found your blog through Lainey's, but couldn't comment before as I didn't have a google account and was too lazy to get one!
I grew up in South Africa and love reading your blog- somehow you remind me of my best (childhood) friend's mother. She was lovely and motherly and sweet- used to spoil us just enough but not too much. Reading your blog is like revisiting a little piece of home. sorry for driving you crazy with curiosity- now you know! :)
A lot of people read blogs but can't comment because they don't have one themselves. A lot of my friends are like that. I forget they see my blog, and I start to tell them something and they'll say "Oh I know about that - I read it on your blog!" Happy Blog Birthday for yesterday!! I remember discovering you and reading about your weight worries. I think I left a comment, didn't I? Hey, how are you 'saving' your blog - do you mean copying it to your hard drive? I've thought of printing all mine out to keep, but then I thought "What for?" Nobody but me would ever read it again!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Molly - I'd like to tell you that I made the stained glass, but I didn't - we just commisioned it for a panel in a door in our last house, but didn't include the glass in the sale of the house because I liked it too much.
ReplyDeleteBirds eat cats in Florida? Wow.
G'day to you, Zanna.
Oh, Linda, how exciting! Thank you so much for satisfying my insatiable curiosity. I just need this Salford person to communicate now... I did realise that the lurkers might not have Google accounts - and indeed, there's absolutely no reason why anyone should comment if they don't want to. But it's nice when they do. Thanks for your nice note!
Yes, Gina,I do mean that I'm saving it to my hard drive. I suppose really that I think I might read it myself, in my old age, to remind myself of what my fifties were like. I keep thinking that when I retire I'm going to have time for all sorts of things.
That was "commissioned", by the way, with two "s"s. It just didn't come out right.
ReplyDeleteI was joking! But when we lived in Minnesota and still had our black lab, an owl swooped down one evening at twilight, as we were returning from a walk.He didn't manage to carry her off, but he gouged her rump enough to draw blood! Imagine his ambition! He had a nest in a tree behind our house and we had watched him and his mate hatching their eggs and raising their owlets--it was fascinating. Then he sat on the corner of the roof balefully watching as we beat a hasty retreat into the garage and safety!
ReplyDeleteHello Isabelle,
ReplyDeleteI have enjoyed your comments on Whats new Pussycat, so I thought I would read your blog.
How lovely everything sounds there. I was wishing to hear Dido and Aeneas, actually, I felt like standing threre with you having a bit of a sing...but thankfully I am not, for the sake of the audience.
You are blessed to have that in your life.
I started a blog recently...I have no idea how you track viewers though. I was horrified at the thought that peple know what I'm peering at on the internet. Especially when I am pretending to write serious things.
You might be interested to know that I am planning on (re) visiting scotland at some point this year. As long as I sell enough paintings I shoud be set. so far I only have the airfare...I am only a poor underpaid casual academic.
Oh, and I'm in Sydney Australia by the way. Not Salford.
Hi Isabelle, I'm not sure if I've commented before, but I've enjoyed reading your thoughts over the past few months.
ReplyDeleteLovely window :o)
ReplyDeleteHappy blogiversary! :oD I love the sitemeter - and I too get the Salford person, would love them to 'out' themselves so we all know who it is! :oD sadly my new blog software doesn't give me the lovely stats that sitemeter did, and Sitemeter won't work on it as they are not compatible. So I don't get to see the referrals, where people are and such like *sigh*
One of the interesting by-products of blogging that I never thought about before I started doing it :o)
Oh, and I do the saving thing with e-mails... sometimes it's nice to go back to them a year or so down the line. But then, I'm a terrible hoarder of cards, letters and such like - at least with a computer I don't need to worry about storage! :oD
B.
Honest, I'm in the Scottish Borders, not Salford, and I ain't ever been near your site before but I saw your comment on another blog and registered the Scottish connection and homed in!
ReplyDeleteI'll be back to read up more very soon - still tittering about the 'runes' by the way....
Ahh that's how people manage to look at a blog for 0 seconds. Thanks for explaining that!
ReplyDelete(not from Salford either)
Not lurking, not from Salford, but here to wish you a happy bloggiversary all the same. Am enjoying your blog.
ReplyDeleteI'm definitely not from Salford, I don't know where that is, but I do know where I am, so that proves it!
ReplyDeleteHappy bloggerversary, wishing you many, many more! :)
Thought I would mke a suggestion regarding cats.
ReplyDeleteIf you get a pair of burmese cats, your problems will be over.
They are the dogs of the cat world, ie they fetch sticks and play, etc.
They are not very streetwise, so are happy indoors and dont indulge in much wildlife destruction,
they will amuse each other while they are home alone, playing and grooming.
There are some absolutely lovely cats in the uk,
dont know about scotland, but if you go via Bambino Burmese, there should be links to breeders who use this line. Absolutely divine animals to look at, cuddle and talk to.
Happy Birthday and Happy 1st Blog Birthday! I'm frustrated at the moment because my site metre is down for the count and so I don't know who's visiting...
ReplyDelete(Not a lurker and not from Salford)
Hullo Isabelle!
ReplyDeleteI loved your introduction to this blog entry; very clever. I've been going through some of your older entries since I found out about your blog (thanks for stopping by mine, by the way) and have found them marvelous. Touching stuff, very human and humorous.
Isabelle, Andrew from Melbourne, Australia here, first time visitor to your blog, clicked a link on Beakus blog. Congratulations on your first birthday!
ReplyDeleteHi Isabelle, I'm not a regular blog reader, but I came as a result of a comment you made on Diana's blog (Dented Thimble Quilting). I love getting comments too, and do try to leave at least one comment when I visit a blog. I use sitemeter too. I like knowing who's been on my blog.
ReplyDeleteWhat I did to save my posts, is to change the settings so that it would post everything one one page. Then save that page. Easy. Then change it back, so everybody doesn't have to read your whole blog on one page.
There are also utilities you can download that lets you save a blog. I used blogcollectorlite. It doesn't save pictures or comments, but it does save them in a nice pdf format. There are a limited number of posts it will save, but it is a pretty big number, or you buy the whole version, which does more.
I seem to have missed leaving you some Congrats on your 1st Anniversary.
ReplyDeleteAlways enjoy reading your blog.
Since switching to new blogger I have lost my site meter.
Hi Isabelle
ReplyDeleteI'm a first time visitor to your blog and I will be back. I'm in Canberra, Australia.
Good luck with the weight loss. It does eventually happen.
Kathy
Sorry, I'm not from Salford either. Another Australian (but not a lurker).
ReplyDeleteHappy (belated) blogiversary!