Yummy, Marmite! One of the three kiwi icons from my very first post.

Outside it’s dreary. We’re not seeing much of the sun. There’s no growth in the garden.  It’s only seventy-one days until spring a friend of mine said on Facebook. Well, I thought, that’s a relief. Tonight I’ll be celebrating the solstice by going to a beach themed winter BBQ. I have a suitable costume. It involves a lei, a Hawaiian shirt, a sun hat – ha!  – and multiple layers of merino. No, I won’t be putting up  a photo.

Meanwhile, here at Jill’s Scene I’ve got other reasons to celebrate.

This is my fiftieth post. And I’m writing it today, when the sun is as far from us as it gets. Auspicious? Probably not but it feels  important – like a birthday.  And like a fiftieth birthday it took a long time to get here. I can’t be described as the rush-right-on-in sort, not when it comes to blogging. Back in May 2012 when I put up my first post I was tentative to  say the least. It consisted of three photos. There was a title – somehow I’d figured out that was a probably a good idea. But no captions.  No explanatory narrative. The post didn’t get a lot of attention. Funny that. It did get one like –  from a family member. Hey, everyone has to start somewhere.

Eight months went by before post number two. I might as well have scratched each of the 209 words onto stone with a pocket knife the way I agonised over them.  These days, in comparison, I’m bordering on garrulous. Most of my posts are between 700 – 1200 words, some longer. Those of you who stick with me to the end  – I’m grateful – you are my dream readers.

But wait there’s more: sometime soon, someone somewhere, probably you, is going to trip the counter over to 3000. Back on March 28th my blog registered 1000 views. I was so impressed it might as well have been one million. It took almost two years to get there and less than three months for the next 2K. An encouraging trend, don’t you think?

Along the way I’ve found out all sorts of things and even learned how to tweet. How’s that for a blogger who didn’t have much of a clue and still doesn’t? There’s so much talk about how bad the internet is, how the way we use it affects attention spans and brain structure, how it’s full of porn and stalkers, and how it will be death to reading and books. Well, pffiffle to all that. Like anything, you get what you go looking for. (Except for maybe the stalker thing – but they are relatively rare.) Judging by the number of people who are reading my site and the millions of others like it, judging by all those people out there blogging about their own stories, reading and writing is doing just fine  … although … am I too long in the tooth to learn to touch type?

But right now: a great big thank-you to all you wonderful people who have visited and  taken the time to like or comment, or, even better, decided to follow Jill’s Scene. You each help to make the blogosphere a laugh out loud, thought-provoking and entertaining experience.

So to celebrate the tilt of the earth’s axis and my equally celestial blogging milestones (to me anyway) please welcome four new stars  to my blog roll.

One cool site has lots of blogging tips. If you want ideas about how to manage copyright, or comments, or something called SEO which I don’t have the hang of, yet, or anything else to do with blogging on WordPress  then check out what Time Thief has to say. I read somewhere she’s a fan of vegemite which probably makes us virtual cousins seen as Marmite is my thing. (My blog, so vegemite doesn’t get a capital and Marmite does.) Any Kiwis and Aussies reading this will know what I’m talking about.

Burns the fire is responsible for getting me hooked on Marquez! Which means I have a lot to thank her for. She posts only every ten days or so but, believe me, they are treasures. She ends each one with a good news flash – a great antidote to all the bad news that’s out there.

Dan over on No Facilities  is a techy woodworker with a quirky sense of humour. Once, a long, long time ago, I worked in a furniture factory with one of my uncles. I didn’t last more than a few months. But I learned a lot. Dan’s stories about his lathes and other gizmos take me right back to those good old days when sawdust clogged my nostrils and I helped to churn out hundreds of TV stands.

And then there’s Ned – he’s friends with that first  funny guy, Mr Ross Murray.  Ned’s a funny writer  and fire fighter who loves his wife. Look for the video clip about the pole dancing – it’s my very favourite. He might have a book out and another on the way but at heart I reckon Ned’s just a boy trying to impress a girl.

Each of you, along with the others on my blogroll, are the highlights of my reading week. You’re helping to keep a dreary old winter at bay. Take a well-deserved bow!