Four years ago

I first published this blog four years ago. I remembered this recently while reflecting on the number of Father's Day posts I'd written, and wondered what my first ever Father's Day post was. It was, in fact, the first ever post I wrote for this blog, on Father's Day 2004:

I promised myself that I would publish my own first blog in time for Fathers Day (here in Australia). It is my gift to myself: a place for me to express myself, publish some of my own work, that I care about: social and political issues (here in Australia and globally), fathers and fathering, writing, reading and the English language, and whatever else strikes my fancy about what's going on in this crazy world.

And I think I've managed just that over this time.

Of course, I can't claim to have been blogging for four years. I kept up the first burst of blogging for nearly four months, and then stopped for nearly a year. I can't remember exactly why I stopped. It was early December, and I think I was busy applying for jobs to get out of my then insane job in a toxic workplace. And keeping on top of family needs, and keeping sane.

I think I was also feeling somewhat demoralised at the thought that no one was reading my blog, that I wasn't reaching anyone or making an impact. Blogging was no longer a priority and fell off my plate.

Three months after I stopped blogging, my family and I moved house, I started a new job, and my eldest (and then only child) had recently started school for the first time – all wonderful, positive, life-changing and very time-consuming events. And as time passed blogging was further and further from my mind. Until another September.

In September 2005, three years ago, the blogging bug bit me again and I resuscitated this blog. And I pretty much kept going bar the few odd dry spots and the deliberate longer breaks that came with things like holidays and child-birth.

So while this blog is four years old, I've really only been a blogger continuously for three years. Which is a pretty good run, I think.

And now, this past month and especially these early days of September have seen the biggest burst of blogging activity I've sustained in quit a while. What is it about September and spring that gets the sap running?

[Image: a photo I took of my neighbour's plum blossoms and posted to mark the first day of Spring last year]