As you may have noticed, I’ve been posting every day, just about, since I began blogging, with some exceptions for vacations, and I’ve been very happy doing it. There’s great pleasure to be had in producing something every day and in discovering that I can come up with ideas again and again and again and again.
But now I think it may be time for a change. I thought I’d back off from posting every day when I got so busy I couldn’t handle it anymore, but that’s not the case; in fact right now I have plenty of time. But I think I’d like to see what it’s like to post, say 4 or 5 or 6 times a week when I feel most inspired, instead of posting every day and making the inspiration happen.
It interests me that I feel compelled to make an announcement out of this — this is my own blog, after all, and I can make changes without making a big deal out of it. But I’m an annoyingly conscientious and obsessive kind of person, and I feel like if I have been following a schedule and people know I follow a schedule, then if I’m going to change that schedule, I ought to make that clear. The more positive interpretation here is that blogging is about community, and so what I’m doing is acknowledging that community and clarifying the nature of my participation in it. I’m acknowledging that there might be people out there who will notice a change and wonder about it.
Anyway — one of the reasons I’m making this change now is that I’m too tired to write a regular post, which is what I’d normally be doing at this time. Having a more flexible posting schedule gives me an out for times like this.
I’m so tired because the Hobgoblin, Muttboy, and I went on a 6-hour hike today. We drove up to the Appalachian Trail at the Connecticut/Massachusetts border and climbed two mountains there and walked through one beautiful ravine. It was a perfect day for a hike — mid-40s and sunny, and also very windy so that I was grateful to be hiking and not on my bike fighting against a headwind or in danger of getting knocked over by a particularly strong gust.
During the beginning and middle of long hikes like this one, I begin to daydream about backpacking and I plan our next trip — I’m hoping we can do a long one in Vermont this coming summer. But by the end of the hike, I’ve stopped daydreaming about backpacking and I begin to notice how much my legs and feet hurt and that I’ve got a blister on my toe, and I begin to feel grateful that I’m heading to my car, and from there to get Chinese take-out, and then home to a hot shower and a cozy bed. And that’s exactly how I feel about backpacking — enchanted by the possibility one moment and secretly grateful I’m not doing it the next.
So, I’m not sure how much things will change around here, and I may end up posting every day again because I will have discovered that’s what I prefer, but for now, I’ll post often, just not quite so diligently.
And now for some pictures from the hike:
Of Books and Bicycles 
I know I always look forward to your posts, but I totally understand about working full time and wanting to do other things sometimes in your free time! Thanks for the heads up! Lovely photos by the way!!
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Wow, thanks for those wonderful photos! I’ve forgotten what clear skies look like. Love the pines (there aren’t many where I live).
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I love the pictures! And I know what you mean about making the inspiration come to you. I don’t know how you’ve managed to come up with great posts on a daily basis–I certainly couldn’t pull it off–so I think your new blogging policy is well-deserved! And I’m just like you in that I stick to my blogging routine, but I also tend to stockpile posts and links for those rainy days. The holidays wreaked havoc on my blogging habits. I was so burned out that I came thisclose to deleting my blog and simply becoming a commenter. Then guilt set in and I took my finger off the trigger.
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Fantastic pictures! That was a hike well worth taking.
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Dorothy,
I admire your decision to Blog at your pace and not at some arbitrary schedule – I’m not a schedule kind of person anymore. I thoroughly enjoyed the photos of the beauty surrounding the Appalachian Trail. I had almost forgotten how beautiful it is because of the passing years. Ray D. and I began the A.T. in Georgia on July 26, 1973, saving New Hampshire and Maine for the last trek finishing the entire trail in segments on August 2, 1982. I’ve done a lot in my 61 years but hiking the A.T. is the pinnacle of my accomplishments and at some points the hardest.
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It is surprising how long blogging takes, and if you’re like me and leave it til the end of the day, it can be quite an effort to produce something readable. You always do a wonderful job, though. I love the pictures from your hike too – makes me want to go find a small mountain or something to wander up!
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Or you could ‘recycle’ older posts which you feel deserve re-reading for the days you do not feel like blogging. Instead of porting all your archives from blogger to WordPress. Just a suggestion. In fact, I just gave me an idea.
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Dorothy, what beautiful pictures. I feel the same way about hiking – I love it while I’m doing it, and I’m quite grateful when it’s over. As for your new blogging style, I think it’s great to post when inspiration strikes. I won’t stop checking by daily.
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Et tu, Dorothy! Blogger has lost Stefanie already, and now you go and make things worse for them 🙂 . Just kidding. Welcome to WordPress. I hope you enjoy it here.
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nice photos, girl
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I quite understand the need to tell us about the change in plans. It feels quite momentous to make that kind of a decision. You know I did something similar and it was a very interesting experiment – you do learn a lot about the way you write and the way you negotiate this thing called inspiration. And you need have no fear that we will all turn up just whenever you feel the urge to post!
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I’m embarrassed to say just how much my muscles hurt this morning after yesterday’s hike. I need to climb mountains more often, obviously! Sylvia, Carl, Chris — glad you liked the photos. And thanks, everyone, for being supportive about my posting schedule. We’ll see how it goes. Booktraveller — you’re right that it takes a lot of work, although I’ve always been happy to do it. Danielle — I admire your regular posting; I know just how much energy it takes! That’s a good suggestion, Mandarine — thanks. I’ll be happy to see you around Charlotte!
I’m glad you didn’t give blogging up Brandon.
Edd — that’s fantastic about hiking the Appalachian Trail — I’m so jealous! I’d love to finish the trail someday.
Thank you Polaris for the welcome!
Litlove — I’m curious to see what I’ll learn from this — surely, it will be a lot.
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Oh my goodness, those pictures are stunning – what a gorgeous day you had. Sometimes in Michigan I forget that the sun exists..okay, not really, but I do lament the lack of it here in the midwest.
I know what you mean about daily posting. I’ve never been able to do it and nothing is worse than struggling for a blog topic because you “should” post – enjoy your new schedule!
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I’ll have to stop by several times a day and look at those gorgeous pictures to imagine a life out of cubicle hell 🙂
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What a beautiful hike! I look forward to any and all blog entries you choose to write.
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Great pics, Dorothy. They make me want to go hiking.
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Thank you Courtney — I will enjoy it, although now I’m suspecting that I’ll feel inspired to post pretty close to every day. But I like the freedom not to if I don’t want to. I do hope the pictures help Iliana 🙂 Sorry about your cubible hell! Thank you LK and Susan.
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Beautiful photos! A lovely site for my eyes that look out my window and see brown sprinkled with a little melted white snow 🙂
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The photos are amazing. Thanks for sharing your hike with us!
I savour your daily posts but I completely understand the need for some flexibility. As you may have noticed, my posting schedule is rather erratic. I like the discipline of the daily post but some weeks, indeed some months, I can’t manage it. Most recently, when I was working on the final edits on my short story manuscript, I could barely manage to post once a week.
One of my “tricks” for maintaining the flow of posts when time and inspiration are absent is to post quotations that I’ve been sufficiently struck by in the course of my reading to copy down. Originally I felt rather lazy for posting them without any commentary but I found that readers often enjoyed them. I never expected them to generate comments, but frequently they do. And I found it terribly interesting to see what readers made of the quotations without me having given them any sort of slant beforehand by indicating their significance to me. Indeed, sometimes the range of interpretations, particularly those very different from my own, have inspired a subsequent post…
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Thank you Stefanie. Kate — I like your idea of posting quotations. I find it hard to keep from commenting on them, but I do like the way it leaves people open to comment as they like without my influence.
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