The maximum temperature here today is 13⁰C, minimum 0⁰C. Dry but cloudy. Wind 10km/h North-Easterly with gusts up to 21 km/h.
This blog will be a bit different today, as I am reminiscing on 12 years of blogging!
When we first bought the house in France in September 2005, we had no internet at all, but after a year or so I managed to get dial-up! Wow, it was many years ago that we had dial-up in South Africa, so I had forgotten just how slow it was. I was only coming to the house for 7 months a year from March until September, as at that time Nigel was still working in the UK. Later on, we got 'a proper' internet connection, although that was very slow and so it remains today, at a prehistoric 0.5mbps! There are rumours we might have fibre by the end of 2022, but I will only believe it when it happens!!
To cut a long story short, I started my first blog as My Life in the Charente on 08/02/2010. That was about the restoration of our house and all the lovely places that we visited in the surrounding area.
It also included a few of our holidays overseas and a fabulous Mediterranean cruise on the Liberty of the Seas, arranged by our great friend Gunter, who was working on the ship as Hotel Director (second in command only to the captain!)
By March 2018 this blog was so slow (possibly too full) I started My Life in the Charente 2. Because this was supposed to be mainly about the Charente, the last few years have seen very few entries, as thanks to COVID we have just not been anywhere!
I mustn't forget of course my third blog My Life Before the Charente which includes our overland trip from the UK to what was then Rhodesia, in 1953!
While these 3 blogs were ongoing, I started up Photodiarydps which originally had daily entries, but this got a bit too much and I never had enough time! More recently, since COVID the updates have been even less than that; I seem to spend a lot more time in the kitchen! I am only managing 2 to 3 entries a month but it is still alive and the subjects are mostly nature around the garden, except on the rare occasion we now go out for a drive.
Just a few years back, I decided to take the bird photos from the photodiary and start a fifth blog that was just birds! Again I have been struggling to keep it up to date weekly, but most of the time I have managed, with help from Christelle who has sent me photos of birds from South Africa. Sadly we do not visit there often enough, and COVID has certainly prevented visits/holidays anywhere!
I also joined Blipfoto on 14 September 2012 on which I enter one photo every single day. It is very seldom that I miss this one daily entry under the name of "Charente" It is a great community and I now have so many Blip friends from around the world as well as blog friends! So much easier to blip a single photo!!
Blog friends that I have met are very special, and outside of France, I have had the pleasure of meeting bloggers from Australia, UK, USA and most importantly South Africa.
A few of my favourite photos from photodiarydps follow :-
A wonderful reprise, Diane. Life has given you many fabulous experiences. I am amazed by people with multiple blogs, I find that keeping one going is quite enough for me! It will be terrific if you can get high speed internet by the end of the year; it makes so much difference. All the best. David
ReplyDeleteI think I should have kept to one but....... We are not greedy and not chasing for high speed internet, just 5.0 instead 0.5 would be nice. Hope you had a good trip, Diane
DeleteI enjoy this post and the photos you shared. I hope to visit your other blogs some time soon. Both of you look great in the last photo.
ReplyDeleteThanks Nancy, It will be good to see you on the other blogs sometime. Take care Diane
DeleteYou have so much blog experience! I am happy to know this blog and the bird one. I didn’t realize you had so many others. Your photos are always super too!
ReplyDeleteThanks Marie, not sure where he 12 years has gone to but it has been fun. Keep well Diane
DeleteThat's a pretty impressive blogging history, Diane. I came to you rather late in this period, but I've enjoyed 'being with you' every step of the way. This post serves as a reminder (as if any was necessary!) of just how diverse and beautiful your photography is, and how interesting your life has been too, thus far. I look forward to the next twelve years.
ReplyDeleteMy very best wishes to you and Nigel - fingers crossed for that faster internet this year! - - - - Richard
Thanks Richard, your compliments are more than welcome and so appreciated. I have my parents to thank for leading such an interesting life early on, and with Nigel later in life also. In the 40 years we have been married, we have lived in 8 different houses and 4 different countries!!! Five houses back I swore I was never going to move again! France has been a record and hopefully this is the last, coming up to 17 years here now!!
DeleteCheers and keep safe, Diane
Hi Diane. Well I saw your post on Facebook. I'm not on there often now. Of course I had to come over here. Congratulations on your 11 years of blogging. You have done so well, with all the blogs you do!!! And it was because of blogging we MET, and wasn't it bizarre that, at the time, you lived half in France and half in England and that HALF IN ENGLAND, WAS my village too!!!! Unbelievable.. I still remember why, it was the Motor racing in your area. I loved the poster. And we had our first meet up at the Corner stones in Grove. Then I had the wonderful holiday with you and Nigel, staying in your home in the Charente and you both taking me around all the amazing places. It was fabulous. Very blessed Still remember it. A big thank you to you and Nigel, dear friends. Take care hugs and love . Anne Xx
ReplyDeleteThanks Anne it is 12 though and not 11 :-)) I am so glad we met and loved having you here as well, we saw some lovely parts of the Charente together. Maybe we will get another chance to meet up when COVID decides to move on!!
DeleteTale care and keep safe. Big hugs from us both Diane xx
Congratulations, Diane.
ReplyDeleteThe blogs are always interesting and the photographs excellent at illustrating your journey.
Very best wishes
Gaynor
Thanks so much Gaynor. It is nice to know that several of my very 'old' followers are still around. I hope that you manage to get over here very soon. We really must try to meet up again. Have a fab week and keep safe, cheers Diane xx
DeleteI am so glad to have met you online and real time. Love your photos and stories.
ReplyDeleteOh Gaelyn so am I. Meeting you was one of the highlights of blogging for 12 years and that you took us all over the place at the Grand Canyon was so very special. Love following you still and your photography is superb. Hugs Diane
DeleteI always love seeing your photos. I've never heard of Blipfoto before. I'll have to check it out. Love the photo of the green lizard and you & Nigel look great in your anniversary photo. Sorry my site has been slow for you. The new design has added so much more content that it can be slow to load for some.
ReplyDeleteThanks Pam, we have little better than dial-up speed here at the moment and I struggle with large blogs. We are hoping that things might change by the end of this year but...... Keep well Diane
DeleteCongratulations Diane, and Happy Blogging Anniversary! I enjoyed your latest photos very much, a lovely series to celebrate! You have had some great adventures, and it has been lovely meeting you through blogging.
ReplyDeleteThanks Denise, so happy that you have enjoyed my blogs. Keep safe. Diane
DeleteI've enjoyed reading your posts for those 12 years. I remember how I enjoyed reading your trip from UK to Rhodesia ans your move to France. I feel you are like a close friend and its a shame we have never met in person. I wasn't blogging when I last visited France and I think you visited Australia before then too.
ReplyDeleteWe too have had problems with internet. Even though we live in a suburb of a city we are in a rural pocket, which doesn't have a cable in the street. The provider uses a microwave signal from a tower to a dish in our village and then it goes into optic fibres under the village. However, this microwave signal was not reliable and the company owning it is useless. This company had sole rights to service the village. We had no internet for many days on and off. We found out that some other villagers had ditched that company and bought a mobile router from a more reputable company. So we went to Telstra, Australia's biggest telco company who we were with before we moved into the village. We bought a Nighthawk M5 Mobile router, 5G Portable Hotspot and Fixed Wireless Modem ROuter. It works like a mobile phone. We get good reception with our Telstra mobile phones so we knew this would work. It has been great. WE use for our computers(3) and our iPads(2) and our TV for Netflix and apps. WE can take it with us when (if) we travel in Australia. I wonder if you could use something like that
Hi Diane, I am really sad that we never met in person as we have so many things in common. Sadly now, the chances of us ever going to Australia again are very slim despite the fact my SIL and her family live there. Long haul trips are a problem for Nigel with having to keep his legs straight and 1st class is so expensive! France is very behind with the internet and mobile routers are not easily available here at a sensible price. We just hope that the cable will eventually be working here, they have promised that the whole of France will have decent internet in the very 'near future' whatever that might mean!!!
DeleteThanks for all your comments over the years and I hope that we remain in touch. Take care, cheers t'other Diane
Thanks. We are not travelling OS anymore either. Good luck with improved internet soon.
DeleteIt can only get better, it cannot get any worse!! Cheers t'other Diane
DeleteGreat memories. I so miss travelling.
ReplyDeleteAmalia
xo
I could not agree more, we have cancelled so many trips in the past couple of years and things are not really looking that bright for the rest of this year. Take care Diane
DeleteHi Diane - I'm so glad I came across you somewhere 'ages' ago ... and love seeing what you post - wherever I may end up - which blog ... this one is my regular. But now I must look at your recipe one ... Bobotie - oooh - delicious. I'll keep peeking in ... I love the birds, the SA pics, the insects ... et al - so fascinating to remember - cheers Hilary
ReplyDeleteHi there Hilary, I think you have been following me from almost the beginning. My blogs have changed along the way but then we do not travel around as much at present so I had to diversify. I also did not have the camera that I have now, or the lenses, so insects and birds were not so easy to take photos of. I started the cookery blog for my own convenience, so if we were away, I had my favourite recipes at my fingertips if I needed to cook. When we stayed in the UK every Christmas it made life very easy for me as I did all the cooking then. Since, many of my followers on blip have asked me for some of the recipes that I make so it has become less private.
DeleteKeep safe and have a good week, Cheers Diane
I love traveling.... mind blowing pictures
ReplyDeleteThanks for the visit and the comment. I hope all is well Diane
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteSorry, I do not download comments that have links to other connections. Diane
DeleteWhat a lovely reflection. We've been blogging for nearly the same amount of time. How much I have changed and grown and you too! Nice to have been on this journey with you.
ReplyDeleteBlogging has certainly changed my life and I have made so many good friends. Cheers Diane
DeleteI am always delighted with your wonderful photos. I especially loved the one with the lizard, it's fantastic.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed learning about the history of your blogs.
I started my blog "Divagar sobre tudo um Pouco" in 2019. As it started to have a lot of posts and I was afraid that it would be slow, I decided to create the other blogs but for more specific topics. Posts are shorter on the main blog and longer on others.
Greetings and all the best
Hi Maria, I must have a look at your other blog also. Amazing how one blog should lead to so much :-) I hope all is well with you Diane
DeleteGreat pics. Isn't it fun going back and looking back on older times?
ReplyDeleteSo many memories and especially on My Life before the Charente which I was lucky enough to have photos that I could scan. Hope you are well Diane
DeleteYou really have been busy on the blogging front Diane and always with such fabulous photos. I enjoyed hearing about when and why you created the different blogs you had. It helps me understand how they all fit together. I never heard of Blip and I'm wondering why you don't just post a photo a day on one of your blogs? Sometimes I think I will switch to doing that and sometimes I think I'll stop blogging altogether because I haven't been as consistent over the past few years.
ReplyDeleteBlip is a totally different community and an amazing bunch of people. I have loved meeting each and every one. They are also very supportive if things should get you down or you are not well. I find it a lovely group and even if I gave up blogging I would continue with blipfoto. Love it. Cheers Diane
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