Friday 8 May 2015

Post # 700

Well, here it is: Post # 700 on this blog. Who would have thought I'd stick to blogging for so long when I first started? Not me, that's for sure! Also, I had no idea what direction this blog was going to take, how it would change over the years along with the changes in my life (some voluntary, some completely beyond my control or what I would have expected), or of the contacts and friends all over the world I was going to make through it.

The self-set task of finding a good topic for this milestone post proved to be impossible. Therefore, I've done what I think is also suitable because it matches the range of topics my blog usually covers: Mixing and matching.

If you have your own blog, you are probably familiar with this situation: You take pictures while you're out, or at home, with the intention of using them on a post. But days and weeks and months pass, and you never write that post because somehow you are not as inspired as you thought you were when you took the picture. Or you suddenly think the original idea behind the post won't be of any interest, or it's not "enough" to warrant a post on its own. But for some reason, you do not delete the picture. Instead, you keep it in a folder on your computer, and other such folders begin to accumulate, or (if you are neat and tidy) other such pictures find their way into the same folder. Every now and then, you may even look at the pictures and think of the original idea behind them. Does this sound a bit like you? It certainly sounds a lot like me, because it is exactly what has been happening here over the past 3 years.

But today, I am opening that folder and showing you what I've found - in no particular order:
Cats in my neighbourhood. The one in the first picture looks a bit like my Pukky, but it wasn't her.

A trip down Memory Lane to the Black Forest town where I went to Librarian School, meeting two of my former class mates and walking along the river with them. This was in May 2013.

 Another cat I met while out running.

Disused rail tracks not too far from where I live. I love looking along those tracks and imagine them leading to all kinds of mysterious and exciting places. Of course in reality I know exactly where they lead to, but it's the idea that counts.

The buffet RJ and I prepared for his birthday party at my place last year in July.

View from my kitchen window on the morning of October 14, 2014.

Helping my Mum to sell her hand-made socks at the 2014 version of the event I blogged about here in 2013.

June 2014 in a much loved part of Ludwigsburg's palace grounds.

October 2014, taken during a walk with RJ.

Many of these pictures were taken with my mobile phone, which explains their quality (or, rather, the lack of it). Still, they show a mix of several of those topics that have featured (and will continue to do so) on here. I don't know if there will be another 700 posts, but right now I can't see myself stopping blogging any time soon - and I hope I will keep you as my precious readers!

17 comments:

  1. Congratulations on your 700th post Meike! Looking forward to reading more of your adventures as they occur. :)

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    1. Thank you, Karen! I hope there will be many more "adventures" to blog about :-)

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  2. Congratulations on your 700th post, Meike! I do hope you continue posting because I love your blog! I especially love the photo of you helping your mother sell socks, because I enjoy so many of her socks! And that buffet. How delicious! And the steps and the Ludwigsburg pictures. All the pictures really. You have a gift for sharing your life and making yourself real to your readers. Keep Calm and Carry On!

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    1. Thank you, Kristi! As my Mum's most loyal customer, I am not surprised you like the socks picture :-)
      Your comment about me having a gift for sharing my life and making myself real to my readers is a great compliment, thank you so much for that!

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  3. Happy 700th! My blogging experience is very similar. Most of my photos are just stored in folders by date, though. Sometimes with a location or other keyword added. I keep thinking I should get better organized but realise by now that it's not very likely that I will... Not retroactively, anyway! Well, the blog(s) serves as a memory backup in itself, I suppose! - My favourite from your selection here is the one of the stone stairs. Those colourful objects on the stone wall at the bottom add extra interest to the composition. It could be a postcard!

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    1. Thank you, Monica! You know, I thought pretty much the same - that it could be a postcard - when my friends and I walked past that house in the Black Forest, and I simply had to stop and take a picture, although normally I am very reluctant to take photos of private houses.
      You are right about the blog serving as a memory backup in itself; it certainly works that way for me.

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  4. Well done on your 700, Meike. Next target 1000?

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    1. PS I've jkust checked to see when I get to my 1000 (I rarely do this) and found that I passed it 45 posts ago. So no celebration. Oh well.....

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    2. Belated congratulations to your # 1000 then, Frances!
      Yes, I am sure that I'll stick around for several hundred more posts, as long as this platform exists and remains free.

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  5. Congratulations on Blogpost 700 Meike! I will reach a significant blogging milestone myself next month and like you I am surprised about my blogging journey thus far. Also like you, part of my reason for blogging is to have a diary of my life that I can refer to to jog my memory as the months and the years rush by.

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    1. It's very useful sometimes, isn't it. I often look up something when I am not sure anymore when I've been where, or whether I have read another book by a certain author, and so on.

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  6. Good for you, reaching 700!

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  7. Well done :). I so enjoy your snapshots of your life. It's lovely to get an idea of life in other countries. We learn to appreciate the different things that matter to us all. The extra photos are inevitable, but I like the fact that blogging encourages us to pay more attention to things and take pictures, just in case. It stops everything being banal and monotonous.

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    1. Thank you, Fiona, and likewise! You are right, I now look at things, places and events in my life (ordinary and soecial) in a different way, thinking of how I can describe them so that others from different parts of the world get an idea of them, too.

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  8. I shall happily add my congratulations to your collection Meike. I have enjoyed reading and being part of your Blogland and hope that relationship will continue for a long while to come. I would echo Monica's comments on your stone staircase photo. That would, to me, have merited a post all of its own. As for the folders of photos all waiting for a post and the reasons they have not I can only echo your comments. I must have a clear-out some day or use them!

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    1. Thank you, Graham! As far as I can tell right now, I intend to keep this blog going for... hmm... as long as I can, I suppose.
      Good to know I am not alone when it comes to those "unused" photos.

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