Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Milestones

I started this blog back in November of 2007. I was so serious in the beginning. The first post was on propagating roses. I intended to blog about gardening and then the content took on a life of its own, and here I am blogging about gardening, kids, food, and anything else that I find interesting.

This little blog of mine is about to reach a couple of milestones. I am within 300 points of becoming a guru on Blotanical. The cool thing about that is I get to pick 40 more blogs to add to my favorites list. Lately, I have stumbled upon a lot of great new blogs and a few older blogs that have just come to my attention.

Also, according to my site meter, I should reach 10,000 visitors in the next ten days or so. While this may seem like nothing to some of you with hundreds of visits every day, to me it is mind blowing. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that many people would have any interest in what I have to say. The site meter has also revealed that people visit here from all over the world. This is just amazing to me.

Through this site, I have been able to keep family members up on what is going on with our little family, which was my intention to begin with. I have also reconnected to a long lost cousin. She began reading this blog after getting in touch with one of my sisters. I saw her on the sitemeter, who else could be reading from Pampa, Texas.

Possibly the best thing that has come from this activity, is meeting such a great group of fellow bloggers. Most of the blogs I read and bloggers who come here and read mine are garden bloggers. There are a handful that I found through other links. My sister also has a mommy blog and a craft blog. I try to visit the blogs on my links frequently to see what everyone has to say. I consider many of these bloggers dear friends.

I love reading and responding to comments. There has been very little trouble with spam and I have never had an ugly or hateful comment. Occasionally, though, the comments do take on a life of their own. Gardening Injuries comes to mind. Some of the commentors (I know, not a word) had some pretty gnarly injuries.

All in all, this has been a great experience and I have really enjoyed myself. I can't wait to see what the future holds for my little blog.

25 comments:

  1. Congrats on the milestones. I'm getting close to being a master, but it seems to take forever to get there. I suppose I'll have to get busy if I want more blog picks!

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  2. You have a wonderful blog--I really enjoy visiting you! I am pretty new at blogging and it does worry me I will completely run out of things to write about! But as you said, it has been a wonderful experience--I have "met" many new friends!
    Happy Gardening!

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  3. WTG Debbi! We started blogging about the same time and a lot of what you're saying chimes with me too.

    I'm proud to have you as a buddy even though we're thousands of miles apart :D

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  4. Congrats! Your blog is going great guns and I can see why. It's fun to visit you. Keep it up and happy blogging!

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  5. Congrats on the milestones. I'm fairly new to this blogging thing (this past May) and I've enjoyed meeting such nice people. Your blog is one of my faves and I look forward to reading all your future blogging escapades. :)

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  6. Congrats on making it so far. Blogging is not always an easy thing to stick to. I just recently found your blog through Blotanical and have been enjoying it. Your blog has a great sense of humor to it that I really appreciate!

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  7. I think 10,000 visitors is a wonderful milestone. Congratulations.
    I love the mix of life, monkeys and gardening that you write about.
    Warm regards
    Karen
    An Artist's Garden

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  8. Thanks Cinj, congratulation no getting close to the masters. Enjoyed blogging with you. `

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  9. Thanks all, my internet is going in and out. I will comment back to each of you individually as soon as my dsl gets straightened out. This is going to slow down my bloggy goals.

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  10. Hi Meadowview Thyme, love that name. I thought I would run out of stuff to say too. Not so, most days provide their own topic. Thanks again.

    Hi vp, I have enjoyed our interweb exchanges very much. My husbandlooks at me funny when I say, "My friend in England..."

    Thanks Kathleen.

    Hi pg, Thanks and I have enjoyed reading yours as well.

    Thanks Cindy, I am enjoying myself.

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  11. Karen, this is my third try to comment back to you. Thanks so much.

    Deb

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  12. When I first started reading your blog, I was drawn in by your love of both nature and the kids. The more I read, the more I admired your knowlege and that you do have a very serious side about gardening. I think you hit it right on with our blog progression.

    We do start out somewhat on topic--but as we meet others and start chatting across the fence, our blogs become more of who were are daily. Congrats on everyone loving you for being kind, funny, helpful, and making this blogging world better cause you are here. I'd give you a million dollars but it would have to be in Monopoly money.

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  13. I'm so happy for your milestones. Congrats on your achievement at Blotanical. It is difficult to get to guru status. Your blog is engaging and fun and one of my first reads everyday.~~Dee

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  14. Hi Dee, I should have mentioned you by name in that post. You are my garden blogging mentor and I appreciate you so much. If you hadn't led me to it, I would never have found blotanical and all the garden bloggers. Thank you so much.

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  15. James and I love your blog and we are so thankful for all the information that you have shared with us! I told James that we should start paying you for your comments on our blog, they are so helpful and as first time gardeners we need all the help we can get.

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  16. Bless you Debbi darlin', and congratulations on both milestones. They are SO well deserved! Your blog cheers us up pretty much every single day, and we love your recipes, too. So glad you moved away from being serious and just decided to be you before we found you!!! Onward to the 100,000th visitor!!!

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  17. Honey, you're certainly doing something right. Really right! I don't know how these other bloggers manage to get all those vast numbers. But I'm like you (and you're farther along than I am on those numbers!: just write what comes up and go with the flow. I met you during this whole endeavor, so what a friend I have in Deb! That's the great thing about Blog World. The best part of all! (It's your humor...)
    Brenda

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  18. Thanks Shala, Glad to help if I can.

    Hi ofb, and right back atcha.

    Aw thanks brenda, hugs.

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  19. See, I told you being popular is fun!!!

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  20. Hey meme, but I am still really not cool.

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  21. congrats on the blog milestone. Blogging is addictive, isn't it? I've been trying to cut back on blogging and have been walking instead, but the pull is strong. I feel like I'm missing out on the action when I can't get around to visit everyone as much as I would like to!

    Stay cool!

    Love your blog!

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  22. Hi Sherry, and thanks. I took up aerobics three days a week to get myself off of this keyboard a little.

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  23. Congrats on your milestones! I just don't have time to tend my "plot" at Blotanical...I'm afraid it's full of weeds! But I enjoy your blog, and will keep stopping by when I can! (Sometimes it's hard for me to keep up with prolific posters like yourself, so I wind up doing a "blog-by" comment spree in one sitting :)

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