Seven years young

This year to celebrate my blog turning seven I’m turning to another list - there’s an annual theme developing here. Last year the list was blog related, this year not so much. At the start of the year I saw posts for the hashtag ‘makenine’ and was intrigued, and slightly tempted.

I kept thinking what my makenine might be, but it was easier to think what my “finish nine” might be as I seem to have enough projects on the go. So then I thought more laterally, what would my house and garden nine projects, which I’ll admit is distinctly less catchy. And again it felt like a bit of a commitment.

Then it struck me, my nine should be seven. Though that didn’t make it any easier to decide, so I’m taking a completely different approach. To celebrate my blog birthday I’m choosing a ‘visit seven’ - and that’s seven gardens I’m hoping to visit this year. I’d brainstormed a list - if you can brainstorm on your own - in January, and quite quickly had a list of fifteen. So here goes…

My visit seven for 2020

  1. RHS Wisley, Surrey

  2. RHS Hyde Hall, Essex

  3. Houghton Hall, Norfolk

  4. Nymans, West Sussex

  5. Sizergh, Cumbria

  6. Holker Hall and Gardens, Cumbria

  7. Scampston Hall, North Yorkshire

So my visit seven will see me zipping up and down the country. I’ve included gardens in Cumbria and Yorkshire as I know we’ve got trips there in June, somehow though there’s no Devon gardens on the list and we’re heading there in a couple of months. There’s some old favourites - Wisley, Hyde Hall and Houghton - and some, like Nymans, which we’ve already made it along to. I could have included Emmetts Gardens too, but that would have felt a little like cheating.

Happy seventh blog birthday to me, and still I hope there’s many more.

Life at 139a is 6 years old...

Well, I’m not quite sure how that happened and I’d like to say it was well and truly celebrated - well it was with pink champers and a couple of nights away, but that might have been more to do with Valentine’s Day in reality.

But when I realised I’d reached another milestone with my blog I didn’t want to let the event go completely unnoticed here, and so I’ve raided Unsplash for a suitably stylish six photo, which I’m sharing along with six facts blog-gy facts.

Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash

Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash

  1. I still enjoy writing my blog, six years on. I’m not sure I ever thought about it long-term, but over the years it’s evolved and grown with me and I’ve grown with it. More than ever I relaxed about the various ranking and stats, and more about what I’m writing about and who’s reading and interacting with my blog. I’m much more likely to use my stats to see what’s working and what’s being read, rather than to compare myself to other blogs.

  2. I’m happy with my ‘brand’ too. There’s been a few tweaks to the layout, but since I moved to Squarespace, the look and feel have been pretty much constant. I’ve no desire to change it (and quite frankly, probably not the time to either), so that’s just as well. I’m more certain than ever that Life at 139a will live on whenever the time comes to move house because…

  3. Blogging is now ingrained in what I do. So unintentionally leaving home without my phone for a day out on Saturday was quite strange, mildly liberating and quite frustrating all at the same time, especially as there were pictures I wanted to take (cue commandeering MOH’s phone).

  4. I’ve more plans for this space than I’m sure I’ll be able to put into practice, but the same could be said of my home-life, work-life, holiday-planning-self, craft to do list and almost everything I’m involved with. I guess that means I like things to be busy and am open to change, but don’t always have the time, and perhaps confidence, to make them all happen. But at least some of them make it through.

  5. I’m a night owl who often runs out of ‘night owl hours’ so it seems I can be sensible at times too, as I know I have to get up for work in the morning. So while I could (and do) spend time on my blog each evening and into the small hours, there’s never enough time, as there has to be sleep.

  6. I value each and every comment and interaction with my blog, it might take me a while to reply (see number 4 above) but I will. I’m working out how I can catch up, stay on top and even stay ahead of myself at times too so I don’t always feel like I’m chasing my tail, though I think that’s a symptom of modern day living.

So happy sixth blog birthday to me, here’s to many, many more.

It's my 4th blog birthday!

It seems I'm not very good at birthdays, or blog birthdays in any case. I did remember last weekend that my blog birthday was approaching, and then in the busyness of life I forgot all about it until about 6:30pm this evening, as I sat on the sofa unwinding from the week.

Image: Unsplash

Image: Unsplash

In previous years I've celebrated with cake - three of them for my third blog birthday no less - but while I have bought cake for the weekend, a couple of slices of my favourite Forest cake for MOH and I (if he's lucky) its purpose was as a weekend treat rather than anything else.  See that blog birthday was well and truly forgotten.

So what to do to mark my blog birthday?

We are going out for dinner tonight, but that's to save cooking rather than celebrating.

Well, as luck would have it things have been taken out of my control. I didn't know it but today is Random Acts of Kindness day.  I know it now because of this tweet Johanne from Jo's Writing Space sent me.

It definitely put a smile on my face, thanks Johanne.

And as I was scrolling through my Twitter notifications, I spotted this from Peachy of Diary of a Little Peach.

So two lovely tweets in one day, and another smile on my face, although this time with a small blush to go with it.  Thanks Peachy.

Looking into the #BlogCrush hashtag I discovered a brand new linky hosted by Lucy from Lucy at Home and Wendy from Naptime Natter which is a linky with a difference - as well as linking their own posts, bloggers can nominate a Blog Crush, which is where Peachy came in.

So with the two tweets, the new linky and the last minute offer of some tickets to the London Bike Show tomorrow, it looks like I'm all set to celebrate my 4th blogging birthday in style. Thanks ladies!

...Oh and maybe a glass of red, or two (four may be pushing it) with dinner as well, now that I've remembered I'm celebrating!

The Reading Residence