100th Post

I was going to blame it on the Ivory Billed Woodpecker, but in truth it was a nuthatch’s fault. 

Its hard to believe that some five months and 100 posts have come and gone since I took this up, it has evolved and grown into something I didn’t quite intend.  But I suppose I should go back to the beginning. In late April I was caught up, like so many other people who are interested in birds, with the news that the Ivory Billed Woodpecker had been rediscovered, and filmed, in Arkansas.  While surfing the web for links and further news of the discovery, I found this post, which I also found insightful and well written. I had a vague idea what a weblog was, but this was the first one I had really visited (10,000 birds being the second, again from a search about the IBWO) and I found myself returning again and again to this excellent blog.

I had been talking for sometime with Gary, that we needed to start writing down some of our Crew Stories, and I kind of decided that hey, I could put in a blog of my own.  I intended it to be for my family and friends, the idea that someone else might be at all interested in my life here in Arctic Bay just didn’t seem plausible. I mean really, who else would care apart from the people who know me.

And then, people started visiting, I got a comment from (of all people) nuthatch and it seemed like she enjoyed my writing, and Whippoorwilll left a similar one.  Here were people whose writing I admire very much, who may actually like what I was writing.  It was like a drug. And like any drug not without its negative aspects, I care far too much now whether or not people are reading me, I check my stats several times a day, and am jealous of people like Rurality who get more comments for a single post than I get hits (it’s a pretty superficial jealousy, I love Rurality’s blog and she deserves all the people that come and visit).

I visited more and more of other people’s lives, and cared more and more about what was happening in them.  I have to check my favourite couple of dozen at least three times a day. I started contributing to carnivals (after figuring out what the heck they were) Tangled Bank, I and The Bird and Circus of the Spineless. I’m still not sure what to make of them, as now I’m writing posts just to have something to contribute to a carnival, (typically at the last minute) rather than writing as the world unfolds before me, or the feeling takes me.

I’m enjoying this world, this blogisphere, even if I’m not sure I like everything it’s done to me (the desire to be liked and accepted for instance). I’m hoping that you (whoever you are) enjoy my little corner of the world, and this glimpse into my life (and let’s face it, it is just that – a glimpse. I’m not about to share my warts, the times I have no patience etc.). I’d like to write well enough for people to care about what I write, I’d like to write as well as Whippoorwill or Nuthatch, or as prolifically as tony at Milkriver blog, but ultimately I’m just hoping you’ll keep coming back for a visit.

So, come on in, look around, go back and check out the archives if you’re new, or a glutton for punishment. Welcome to the High Arctic.

What a long, strange trip it’s been.