Hello, you have come to the right place, in case you for a moment was in doubt! It’s just that my blog has had a bit of a refurbishment the last couple of days and look a bit different, but everything is here, it’s just the wrapping that has changed. I passed my 2 years as a blogger in silence last month, should probably have made an announcement, but I thought I would save that for today’s post, which is post number 200!!!
When I started out blogging 2 years ago it was with the intention of letting it run for a little while and see how it went, as I was afraid I wouldn’t have anything to write about after a couple of weeks...Well, as things goes, despite being housebound and living a rather quiet life, I feel I got plenty of things to write about! It has been a joy to meet all the nice and interesting people through my blog, many of whom are visiting me here regularly and leaving messages. I really appreciate getting messages from my readers, I love to hear about their gardens and their life and it is nice to get appreciation for all the work I put in.
I didn’t have a lot of visitors the first year I was blogging, it didn’t really spark off until I became a member of Blotanical about one year ago. I am therefore going to re-post some of the things I posted in the early days the next few weeks, I hope you will appreciate seeing these things again even if you might have seen some of it before.
I am going to start off this re-run with a short movie of my cat. The movie was taken completely without any preparations, it was one of those events where I saw an opportunity and luckily had my camera next to me. Filming with one hand without getting to see on the display properly is not that easy though, but I hope you find the film charming enough to ignore that.
Blogging has been a bit of an eye opener for me, I had no idea I would enjoy it so much! I thought about it for several years, but had lots of excuses for not getting started. You have already heard the one about not having enough to say/write. Well, anyone who follows me on a regular basis knows that one was nothing to worry about, I could probably write much shorter posts and still get away with it! Another worry I had was that my English was not going to be good enough. Writing this much, on a regular basis, in a language that is not your own (I am Norwegian) requires a good vocabulary – much bigger than I have. I have resorted to write in Outlook where I can get synonyms and spell checker at the same time. That doesn’t mean I get it right all the time though, the spell checker can be terrible sometimes, frustrating even, and it can ignore a lot of grammar errors that should have been corrected. But Outlooks spell checker is better than nothing, and by using it, and looking up words on the Internet if I am not sure of the correct meaning I have learned more English the last 2 years since I started Blogging than I did all the years before blogging :-)
I have a lot of fun preparing material for the posts, writing the posts and replying to all the messages I get, but at times I also get a good laugh looking at the blog statistics. Do you ever look at them? I look at what people have searched for in order to end up on my blog, and the list is pretty mixed, but some of the things that comes up makes me wonder how Google works. Here is a short list for you of people who have ended up on my blog with the following search term:
-What happens if it rains after I stain a fence
-Bad window installation UK
-Do I have to replant flowers everyday
-A bulb of some flower in my garden what is it
-Nightmare before Christmas gingerbread house
-Is my bonsai dead
-Kittens tabby that are confused
-My cat has big ears
All these people seem to have been searching for an answer to a problem they have, I am sad to say they didn’t find the answer on my blog! I hope that what they found was interesting enough to stay for a while though. The best ever visited post of all 200 I have written was one I wrote last summer, on 6th June 2012, it has had 1489 visitors so far. The post is called ‘Will it ever stop raining??’ I suppose that says something about what kind of spring, summer, autumn – year 2012 was for us here in Britain!
Over the next couple of weeks there will be more new things to come and a few more re-run of things I posted in 2011. I am very excited about something I am about to launch in the next couple of weeks, can’t say much more now because that would spoil the announcement, but it has to do with some of the other creative things I do on my computer. You will be notified and get an invitation for the grand opening so just stay tuned :-)
Until next time, take care.
I shouldn't worry about your English it look pretty perfect to me - I like your new-look blog. Blotanical is very good for bringing new followers in but very often I find that they don't stay as they are busy finding new blogs all the time. If I like a blog I tend to stay with it as you get to know the person behind it.
ReplyDeleteI see what you mean about Blotanical, I suppose I have done the opposite, I have left Blotanical but I keep visiting the same blogs I found initially when signing up. I got so fed up with all the problems with Blotanical so now I don’t use it, but I appreciate all the nice blogs/people I found there so those I can’t sign up to as a member I have saved on my side bar.
DeleteHelene, congratulations to your blog and you! I always read your interesting posts although I found it some months ago. So I will wait for invitation :)). I love your new header!
ReplyDeleteThank you! I thought it was about time to make some changes on my blog, even though I have changed the picture of my garden a few times it was still the same shot of my garden.
DeleteCongratulations on 2 years and 200 posts! I love the new header and have been working on an update for mine. Your cat is so sweet. I also enjoy tracking some of the funniest searches on my blog.
ReplyDeleteI'll look forward to the big announcement too.
Thank you! My cat is a great companion and is with me wherever I go around the house and in the garden.
DeleteI like the new look. Happy 200!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on your blog! You never know where things will lead, right? I'm glad you are still enjoying yourself. By the way, you'd never know English is not your first language, your writing is perfect and I've never noticed a single mistake :)
ReplyDeleteThank you! The mistakes are there, if you look closely enough, I even find my own mistakes sometimes, when reading older posts. The main problem when not writing in my own language is that I know there are times I could write things more eloquently - as I have a much bigger vocabulary in my own language, although I must admit the Norwegian language is slowly trickling out of my brain from lack of use!
DeleteA while ago I was trying to explain to my son that it would have been very useful for me to have a wheelbarrow in my tiny garden, if I could only find a place to store it. My son and I speak Norwegian between us of course, and I could not for my life remember what ‘wheelbarrow’ was in Norwegian. My son was of no use either, he was 13 years old when we moved from Norway, none of us had said the word ‘wheelbarrow’ in Norwegian for 13 years so it was simply gone from our brains. We had to look it up on the Internet! By the way it’s called ‘trillebår’ – if you wondered :-)
Congratulations on reaching your 200th post!
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteCongratulations Helene... your blog is very well thought out and interesting... 200 posts is a wonderful milestone... next goal? perhaps 500 posts?? Take care, Larry
ReplyDeleteThank you, Larry, I don’t have a number in mind, but I have decided to blog about other things than gardening this year, as I did the first year - last year became all about my garden and not much else. I have so many projects I want to do and it would be great to share that with my visitors.
DeleteCongratulations on reaching your 200th post. As has already been said, you would never know that english was not your first language.
ReplyDeleteBeing a new blogger - I share some of the concerns you once had but am trying to put them to the back of my mind.
Haven't figured out yet how to check stats - if I'm honest, if I went to check and find nothing - it would probably make me worse :)
I'm loving the new look and can't wait for your announcement!
Thank you Angie! Checking stats is easy, you log in and when you get to the page where you can read all the blogs you are a member with, look at the top of the page, where your blog is. Next to it you have an orange button with a pencil for create a new post, and then a button for View Blog. And in between those two there is a button with an arrow. Click on the arrow and you’ll get a menu. One of the options on the menu is stats, click on that and you’ll get to the stats page.
DeleteOn the left hand side you have several options for stats, the wacky and funny search terms are under ‘Traffic Sources’ right at the bottom of the page. You can choose to get Search Terms for Day, Week, Month and All the time.
You will most definitely find something in the search term page, and in the other stats too, just have a look – but don’t get too obsessive about them, what really matters is what your visitors tells you :-)
Congratulations, Helene - on your 200th post, on your very pretty new header and on getting almost 1500 gardeners to read one of your posts!!! Please keep up your great writing about your gardening experiences. I look fwd to all your new posts and your photography, which is excellent.
ReplyDeleteThank you Astrid! Not sure if my most visited post has been visited by almost 1500 gardeners, but it has been almost 1500 visitors at least - I think it has been almost 1500 very frustrated people if nothing else, that I am sure of!!
DeleteI will certainly keep blogging, I have great fun doing it, and all the messages I get is making it worth while :-)
Well done, that's quite an achievement. 200 posts! I know I've certainly enjoyed following your journey so far, and I've not noticed problems with your command of the English language.
ReplyDeleteLoving the new layout and header. The stats are indeed fascinating aren't they? You just never know what people want to know or want to read. Well, enjoy writing your next 200 posts, as I know you have a lot of readers who will be following every word.
Thanks Bernie, in the beginning I looked at the search terms in the stats, trying to guess what people were looking for, trying to write the right kind of articles or ‘interesting enough’ kind of articles. That was just the first few months, since then I have just looked at the stats now and then and had a good laugh – and I have simply written what I wanted and hoped people found it interesting. Seems like it worked :-)
DeleteYour English is just great so don't worry. Most people don't always speak or write using brilliant grammar. I remember once when on holiday in France the owner of the gite we were renting telling me that her daughter had told her that the English wouldn't understand her as she didn't use correct French grammar.
ReplyDeleteIt was rubbish if course as the fact that a French person didn't use correct grammar in their own language was comforting to someone trying to use a foreign language.
Thanks Sue, I don't worry so much how I speak (as long as people can understand me), but I guess it is different in writing – just the perfectionist side of me I guess!
DeleteWhat a cute little movie! I love your cat :o).
ReplyDeleteHuuu, I know what you're talking about. I try to translate my blog by myself into English for all the foreign readers, but it's so difficult when you use the language only for blogging or in holidays. But I do it just for fun and for practice.
Have a lovely weekend!
Alex
Hi Alex, yes it is good practice, and I did wonder when I started my blog if I should write in both English and Norwegian, double languages like you do, but then I decided not to. There are a few of my friends in Norway who complain a bit because they can’t understand enough English to read my blog, they just look at the pictures. I have told them to use Google translate, although when using it myself I have seen some of the ridiculous translations you can get so it’s not a good solution. For example, Google consistently translate ‘flower tub’ or ‘plant tub’ in English to bathtub in Norwegian. Slightly confusing...But I hope anyone who don’t understand English well enough at least will enjoy my photos.
DeleteCongratulations on 200 posts!! Blotanical has been such a great site to find other garden blogs; it's too bad it hasn't been better maintained. I never would have guess that English wasn't your first language.
ReplyDeleteI did use Blotanical for a long time, but got fed up and haven’t been there for a long time. I think it is important to keep the friends you have and not just collecting new ones for the sake of it so it’s fine, I’ll maintain friendship with those I have and don't really need Blotanical to do so. And every now and then I find and get some new friends through those friends I already have so the list is expanding anyway. I need some more hours in the day!
DeleteWell done, 200 posts already. Looking forward to the next 200 and that forthcoming announcement. I love surprises.
ReplyDeleteThank you Crystal, working hard on it, not long to go now :-)
DeleteCongratulations, Helene! Woo-hoo! Time to celebrate! I really like your new header bar and design, although I liked the other one, too. Your kitty is so cute. I'll look forward to your announcement, too! Cheers!
ReplyDeleteThanks Beth, I thought it was about time to spruce up my blog a bit :-)
DeleteCongratulations Helene. Funny list of searches - when I think of your blog I remember your bonsai post (inspirational) and your gingerbread houses (sensational).
ReplyDeletePS. Do you write Norwegian as well as you write English?
DeleteThanks, funny you picked two of the things from my blog that means the most to me, the posts about my Bonsai trees and the one about the Gingerbread Houses - I have obviously managed to convey my deep interest!
DeleteAnd yes, I write in Norwegian, much better than in English, since Norwegian is my native language. English is not a spoken or written language in Norway, only something we learn in school, like French is to British people.
Happy Blogaversary, and happy 200th! I love your new look! Very eye-catching! I, too, worry about mistakes in my grammar or English (even though that's my first and only language!). It's just that we Southerners here in the US sometimes have a lot of colloquialisms that others wouldn't know!
ReplyDeleteThanks Holley, and I think I know what you mean about Southerner colloquialisms, it makes watching certain American movies a challenge at times - not that they don't have them in British English, lots of them here too, it's just a tad easier to learn when I hear them more often :-)
DeleteCongratulations on your milestone, and I love the new blog design. YOur kitty is gorgeous too... I for one never get tired of cat videos or pictures!
ReplyDeleteThank you! We all think our own pets are lovely, like our childern, but I am aware that I have to spread out the pictures somewhat for everyone else :-)
Delete