Blogaversary

I can't believe that I've been blogging for three years already. My first post went up three years ago yesterday. So much has changed in those past three years, but I'm still really enjoying blogging.

One of the highlights of the past year was being a "Featured Blog" on the Nature Blogging Network. One of my responses in that interview seems particularly true today:

Becoming part of the nature blogging community has been the single most rewarding aspect of blogging.

I've enjoyed the experience, the writing, and the photography. I only wish that my writing had improved as much as my photography. I guess it's a lot easier to get a better camera than to get a better brain. It's hard to believe that a year ago I had only met four fellow bloggers: Tony, Homer, Sandy and Kathie. Oh, and UrSpo, but I knew him before I started blogging. In fact, he's the one to blame for getting me started on all this.

Over the past year, I've met a bunch more bloggers. It's hard to believe that it's only been a year since I first met Will and his partner Fritz in person. I've seen them several times since then and I feel like we have been friends forever. I met Rodger and Mark on my trip to the Pacific Northwest last September. I spent a delightful evening with Thingfish23 and family when I was in Florida last winter. Dave came to visit me at the Fen last spring. Cobban and his partner Ray stopped in at the Museum in June, then had me out to their place while I was in Arizona.

I'm still amazed at how rewarding blogging has been. I look forward to another year of butterfly conservation, travel, invertebrate macrophotography and cheesemaking. I also hope to meet more of you for the first time and to see some of you again. It's been an adventure, and the connections that I have made through blogging have enriched my life more than I can express. Thank you all.

Update: Crap. I knew if I listed the bloggers I had met this year that I'd leave somebody out. One of my blogging friends was this year's guest speaker at the annual Illinois Butterfly Monitoring Workshop. Sorry, Ted.