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| A walk in the mountains |
1. That this blog should probably be split into several:
could; should; won’t
2. That this blog merits checking and re-writing:
could’ve; should’ve; didn’t
First thoughts were on
blogging itself:
·
There are so
many thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of blogs out there that one needs
simply to pick a subject and do a search (avoiding actually writing “g_____
it”) + blog and you’ll come up with a plethora of authors.
·
There are as
many styles as writers: fun, simple, serious, logical, rants
·
Writers have
hundreds of reasons for blogging: a short list, which is by no means exhaustive
o
Many, like
myself, simply because we have always written and still enjoy writing: I have
written diaries, journaled, written letters home or to corporations or to …
take your pick. No thought of ever being published, yet no thought of ever not
writing.
o
Others,
published authors, I might add such as my housemate, use it as an exercise in
writing every morning
o
Others, for
professional reasons – or turn blogging itself into a profession
o
Yet others, as a
means of publishing their trip (be it one single trip, a family event or an
ongoing events) or travels as to not have to send a dozen e-mails every time
they come across free wi-fi, or a decent connection whilst in Timbuktu.
o
Some as a way of
breaking into writing
o
Some, me again,
as a way of allowing oneself to do another favorite hobby: in my case taking
photos. If it’s not a blog directly about the photo I can take photos to
illustrate the blog!
o
Whatever other
reason you need that allows you to get an opinion, an experience, a wish out
there.
·
There are many
ways of following a blog: faithfully and in its entirety; sporadically;
once. I currently follow only three
although I could easily spend all of every day reading blogs on a variety of
subjects. So for those of you who
noticed that I forgot to put the links to the “doubly washed clothes” saga in
my blog of yesterday:
o
My housemate’s
husband, who moved to Europe after re-meeting her : a very highly entertaining
look on how someone experiences Europe when they aren’t a twenty-year-old
student . http://lovinglifeineurope.blogspot.ch/2014/05/the-laundry-saga-part-ii-or-no-i-dont.html
o
My housemate: a
published writer who’s latest book “Murder in Poel” came out this spring. Check
out her website for further details: http://www.donnalanenelson.com/
o
My younger son:
although English isn’t his mother tongue, he has just written a couple of
pretty fabulous blogs on his trek in Peru, which will have you feeling that you
were actually with him. http://scottschmitzleuffen.blogspot.ch/2014/05/salkantay-trek.html?spref=fb
·
I follow these
three by being lazy: most bloggers have figured out how to add an app to their
blog that allows one to sign up to receive them via e-mail. This means that you
get the blog once they have written it and don’t have to remember to go looking
for it (my sister K is smarter than I and she has a whole section of blogs that
she follows feeding in by SSR feeds…). The beauty of this system is that one
can read them either when they come in, glance at them and decide that you
don’t need to read it so hit the “delete” button with no one the wiser. Personally I don’t mind the fact that I may
be deleted, the statistics run by the site I use don’t seem that correct to me
anyway: sometimes there are countries during a week that don’t show up on the
monthly statistics; sometimes it reverts back to counting my having re-opened
the blog for whatever reason; I don’t do ads (yet, now if there ever comes a
day when I need more income, watch out readers).
So, go ahead, look for a
subject that interests you, write or read as you choose: enjoy.
My thoughts throughout the
walk wandered to the pleasures of being able to walk; not only the physical
process (I tend to prefer going uphill as at my age, my heart and lungs seem to
be preforming more efficiently than my knees or toes), but also the more
metaphysical one.
Did I get my love of
mountains and trees from my grandfather, a lumberjack once he emigrated to the
USA at age 19? Or from the fact that my mother grew up in a log cabin in the
middle of the woods in Wisconsin? Or from the many summer holidays that we
spent camping in some of the world’s most beautiful National Parks? I enjoy the beach, but it had better be a
remote one at the bottom of a rocky gorge – the only “flat” beach that I ever
liked was the one near my little sister, Pismo, CA. For whatever reason I
thrive in the mountains: sleep better (which many explain as being an altitude
thing), eat better (o.k. so I eat just fine anywhere, but that looked good) and
in general a walk in the woods soothes and restores me.
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| Yes, I can see the Matterhorn from one point on my walk. |
Today’s was no exception:
overcast, I re-visited many spots that I have seen throughout the years. Not
comparing myself to my younger son’s trek as the altitude difference was only 170
meters, but a decent walk nevertheless. The only negative – only half the 10’000
steps that one is supposed to get per day to be in good health. Oh no, do I have
to take another walk this afternoon?
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| Bah, bah, black sheep; have you any wool? Nope I've been shorn. |
So now I could go back and
change the intro as it turns out that I only had two separate subjects.
However, one of the privileges of blogging is being able to write however one
wishes: the reader can decide whether or not to pursue so it’s all good “in my
opinion” (a “The Good Wife” fan, I have learned not to proclaim anything as the
truth, but rather as an opinion: Life is too short for lawsuits!
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| If only someone could create the possibility of adding smell as well as the photo: they were heavenly! |
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