Blogaversary

Can it really be a year already? This whole blogging thing started out as an experiment, and has really gotten to be an important part of my life. I had been reading blogs for longer than that. They were mostly well-known blogs with huge readerships, like Andrew Sullivan and The Panda's Thumb. I'd even occasionally leave comments, though mostly I was a lurker.

Then my friend Michael started his Spo Reflections blog. This was new to me. The other blogs were like marketplaces of ideas, but Michael and his circle of fellow bloggers were more like a community. I started leaving comments, and eventually started this blog. It's been a wonderful year, filled with wonderful folks. Some highlights:

• The gift of pickles and jam from Rodger and Mark, two of my favorite bloggers.
• Meeting bloggers Tony and Homer, both fine fellows and a lot of fun to hang with.
• The discovery just this week of somebody doing a photoblog of my butterfly exhibit.
• Bug Girl saying embarassingly complimentary things about me.
  
• Sharing my successes and failures with a bunch of supportive people.

And then there was the accidental discovery, sometime last spring, of a blog called The Taming of the Band-Aid. This is the blog of a guy in south Florida doing ecological restoration on his little plot of land, and sharing other thoughts on the natural wold. He and his blog are both interesting in theior own right, but his blogroll linked me to a whole bunch of like-minded folks scattered across the country. They have all become important reads to me.

So as my first year of blogging comes to a close, I'd like to thank my readers for making this a rewarding and worthwhile effort. My readership may not be large, but they're quality people. I know this because of Scott from Wisconsin, who lurks but doesn't comment. He's taught me all about quality people.

I guess it's time to stop referring to my blog as "an experiment" and just view it is something that I'm doing.