Plants do toil—

they spin the fabric of living matter.

-E. J. H. Corner, botanist & mycologist

When I first started blogging on this site, I shared a photo every day with a quote. Sometimes the quote jived perfectly with the photographed subject matter; sometimes I had to explain the train of thought that linked them together in my mind. Sometimes I sort of meandered and made a new connection while I was writing— a weird little surprise from my subconscious.

Anyway. I did this for a couple of reasons:

• a main focus of my blog was opening my (and hopefully your) eyes to “wayside sacraments“— the little miracles that are scattered everywhere you go, but especially in your own backyard.
• I had just moved from the city to not-quite-but-close-enough-to-be-called-country and I wanted to document all the flora and fauna; we called this bit being “backyard naturalists.”
• I’m a lifelong hobbyist photographer and I wanted to make sure I took the time daily to practice and strengthen my photography and editing skills.
• I had this huge collection of quotes that I’d been accumulating since high school on index cards, notebooks and Word docs and I wanted to share them.
• My freshman year English teacher told me to “write every day” and it seemed like an easy enough way to ensure that I did.

Somewhere along the way, I stopped, and other sorts of posts took their place; the kinds that research informed me were the best to write to build an audience.

It happened slowly; first I dropped down to just Wordless Wednesdays, although I don’t think any of mine were ever truly wordless. Then it was Sundays, I think. Then just whenever I happened to have a shot I particularly liked.

It just seemed silly, I guess. Blogs had evolved until they were websites, not journals, and it felt childish to insist on continuing on as I had started as a newbie blogger, knowing nothing. The types of posts I was supposed to write were and continue to be fairly successful, but my desire to write them stalled.

It wasn’t fun anymore. I wouldn’t say I had writer’s block; I had a million things I wanted to write, yet no desire to write them. The honeymoon was over.

I just started blogging less and less. I was busy. I was working, and writing pretty much full time. More than full time. The last thing I wanted to do after finishing work was stay on the computer.

The thing is to become a master
and in your old age to acquire the courage to do
what children did when they knew nothing.

-Hemingway

I wouldn’t say I’m a master— not by a long shot— but I’m experienced. I’ve been at this since 2005, which in internet time is a danged long time. I’ve gone on to blog for other sites, wrangle online communities, develop content calendars, write copy for 17 newsletters (every week!), craft daily deals awash in poultry puns, become really good at SEO, edit guest posters, build social media channels, host Twitter chats, assist in social media marketing campaigns, wrestle analytics, and launch three more sites of my own beyond this one.

And now, for the life of me, I’ve been struggling to return and apply all that to this site.

I’ve decided the reason I’ve been struggling now is because “all that” doesn’t apply to this site.

I created this site out of my love of nature and my passions for photography and the written word.

I did it out of passion. I thought it would be fun.

Let’s try an experiment.

I’ll still write my informative posts, my reviews, my rants.

But first Imma gonna do what I wanna do: post my pictures, share my quotes, spin my stories into living fabric.

It’s what I did when I knew nothing about blogging.

OK?