On 28 September 2004, I opened my first blog on AOL Journals and named it Northern Trip. For the next four years, virtually to the day, I made up to a dozen entries each day about my days in Scotland, what caught my eye about the Highlands and islands and the world.
In the autumn of 2005, I came across the on-line community of J-land. A collection of individuals in the USA and Great Britain, writing about their daily lives, trials, triumphs and tribulations. Leaving comments on their blogs, and getting comments from them. I became fully involved at Easter 2006, when one fellow blogger, Pamela Hilger, passed away following a 9 month battle with breast cancer.
Then, on 30 September 2008, AOL, in their definitely finite wisdom, decided to discontinue their blogging service. We scattered to the four winds, some regrouping here on Blogger, but it never got back to the way it was. Facebook became the choice medium for J-land, and many blogs now lie unused since that time, or were closed down.
At the moment, I copy Facebook posts on here (shame) and a selection of pictures for each day, basically reverting back to the way I used to post on Northern Trip during that first year. Every now and again, I'll make a special post (like this one) if I feel I need to write more extensively than Facebook invites you to.
I have enjoyed blogging immensely, particularly in those early years. It is slowly going out of fashion, which is a pity. But that's the way of things.
I have been promised a special graphic tag by J-land's tag artist Donna, which I shall post in the next day or so.
