The Blogosphere

Since I started blogging 18 years ago (whoa!), BlogLand has seemed to shrink each year with the advent of quicker and easier media methods. Facebook! Instagram! Twitter! People I thought were friends or at least buddies have disappeared without a word. Their last posts are sometimes poignant, but often simply business as usual and then...poof, 5 years pass. 10 years. From a close relationship built on words to utter silence. Thus, when a long-time blog friend decided to crowd source a blogroll, I was intrigued. I was delighted to see so many sites and bloggers and made the goal to visit each one. I'm up to 2013! In my journey so far, I've encountered a person who grew up in the same town as I did; she still lives close by and we have much in common. There was a widow whose fascinating stories elicited several comments from me. I commiserated with the amount of snow in one blogger's photos of her home in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I saw beautiful pictures and got to know a little bit about a variety of people in many different places. And although the song is sappy and trite, it truly is a SMALL WORLD, after all!

My highlights today have been the blue sky (but cold) and the view from my mom's house. The foothills and mountain were out during my walk--which required triple layers. I should have also grabbed some gloves!

But at least we haven't gotten our traditional February Snowmaggedon. This picture of Younger Daughter snowboarding in her back yard was from my Facebook memories of 2014. Since then I've posted many, many snowy photos, nearly all of them from February. This year though, we got hit in December and early January. I'm very glad that I had my studless snow tires put on in November! 

Carol makes herself cozy everywhere, including on a damp towel. Crazy cat! The low last night was 18 and it's barely above freezing now, so the cats and humans are very much enjoying the new gas insert. I'm hoping for spring soon, both here and in New York where I'll be traveling in a couple weeks. They're expecting a possible foot of snow Thursday and Friday there. Could NY please get it out of its system before March 4th? Today I watched an amazing video of my 21-month-old grandson answering his dad's question about what was for dinner: Bibimbap. He pronounced it way better than I could. ;) Such a cute and smart little guy and so loved! 

Comments

[DrumMajor]

Beautiful view from Mom's! Lots of purple thingies in bloom when it's so cold doesn't compute in my frozen brain.
That's too much snow if you can snowboard in your backyard. K.C. people go about 25 miles north of here to a ski spot that always spews out fake snow when it stays cold enough.
Carol appreciates your hospitality!
Linda in Kansas

[AC]

The blogroll has rolled through many times over the years. A few have stayed true for a long time. Some have crossed over. A few come back for a post or two very sporadically. Basically, I now ignore them, for they weren’t my faves anyway. I figure you either blog or you don’t, but a post every 10 months is almost useless (to ME, and the ones whom I know from MY past).

[Doug M]

I'm a little lost, crowdsource a blogroll?? I thought a blogroll was the list of others blogs in one's own blog sidebar... Anyway, that sure is a fun pic of your daughter snowboarding! Nice to see Carol is keeping cozy here too. 🙂

[Arkansas Patti]

I'm a bit confused like Doug on crowdsource a blogroll? I do check my stats from time to time and view comments from an old post. Always sad to see so many people are no longer blogging and just hope they got burned out with the process and have not gotten sick or died.

[Deb]

And you can now add snow to the view from mom's house! That was a surprise to see this morning.

[Ed]

I'm a bit lost too. How does one crowdsource their blogroll?

I'm a big bibimbap fan!

[Susan]

You have great views and landscapes. Is that purple heather blooming in your photo? February can be tough with extreme temperature shifts; yesterday was 70 degrees and today it is 20 degrees. Carol looks very comfy, even sitting on a damp towel. That is a great action photo of your daughter.

[The Misadventures of Widowhood]

Ally Bean sent me to check out your blog. I agree with you that her blog roll made me happy as well, am working my way through the list to visit them all. Love the name of your blog.

[Matt]

I hear ya, Margaret. I have been blogging since 2005 and have lost a lot of friends along the way. Some moved on to those other platforms and, unfortunately, a few of them passed away.
It has been cold here this week as well which was not appreciated after a sunny weekend of almost in the 60s.
Take care and hope the weather is more cooperative when you visit NY.

[Martha]

I hate how so many bloggers just disappeared over the years too. I still follow some who left their blogs out there and always hope they might decided to pop in again some day. Great photos. My silly cat loves to lay in the shower after I get out - Weirdo lol.

[Luftmentsch]

I also lament the loss of bloggers from years ago, especially those who just went silent and I wonder what became of them.

[Pam Donaldson]

Bibimbap????? I too miss old bloggy friends who vanish...

[Karen]

I still prefer reading blogs to everything else and really appreciate those who keep it up! So thank you.

It's warm enough where I live that I am in shorts and the window are open. It won't last, but I'm enjoying it for the moment. I love the heat!

[Julie]

Thanks for stopping by my blog! Ally is working to bring this whole world together, right? I love the picture of your daughter in her yard. We live in sunny California, and our back yard is tiny, so that would never happen here.

[Joanne Noagon]

I keep my old blog list intact, and I know what happened to most of them. I've written the blogging obit of two.

[Catalyst]

I have yet to try Bibibamp but it looks pretty darned good.

[Retirement Reflections]

Hi, Margaret - It was wonderful to meet you through Ally Bean. I started with your about page and we have lots in common.
My youngest son has his PhD in Geography, and currently is a professor at Lingnan University in Hong Kong. I was a Middle School Principal for 19 years -- 12 of those years were in Beijing.
I too am saddened when favourite blogs disappear.
I look forward to reading more on this site.

[Tonya Watkins]

I'm also not understanding "crowdsource a blogroll." I will say that since I've been blogging since March 2004, I do achingly miss the hey-day of blogging. Wasn't it great? Sigh. I'm thankful that a number of those bloggers are now on Facebook and I can still keep in touch. But it's different.

We really do have beautiful landscapes in our parts, don't we?

I love that snowboarding pic of Alison.

[Ally Bean]

Tonya, it was easy to crowdsource a blogroll. I asked my readers to let me know if they'd like me to put their blogs on a master list, a blogroll, and they did. The blogroll is a varied bunch of blogs based on what the group told me to do, instead of me telling you who I follow. I started my first blog in March of 2004, too! How is it I do not know you?

[Ally Bean]

Putting together the blogroll was a labor of love, a time-consuming one. But like you said in the process I got sad about some of the bloggers from long ago who are just gone. Or the ones who used to be around, left, tried to mount a comeback, and failed to hang on again. I miss many people but accept that my bloggy friends will always be in flux. Except you, of course. You're always around. Thank you.

[Pixie]

I miss those who no longer blog too. It seems to grow smaller each year.

[Zazzy]

I miss old bloggy friends too. Sniff! I still keep in touch with a few via other methods but it's not the same. There's something about blogging. You can more fully explore an idea and then get feedback and discussions about the idea. Those discussions almost never devolve into name calling and one-upmanship. And it's easy enough to chop a troll out of your comments without engaging or arguing about his/her right to say whatever he/she wants.

I'm glad Ally started this. Many of us have commented here and there that it's like NaBloPoMo. It's been fun to meet a lot of new people and I hope some, at least, will become good friends.

Only a week or so Margaret? Oh my. At least you have this down pat by now.