a blog by any other name ....

I was a blogger long before I became Cooker and a Looker.

For years previous, I wrote a little family blog - the Glasshouse Smyths.

At that point, Bearhands and I had brothers and sisters spread across the globe so I started the blog to keep them updated about how life on the farm was going and how the Big Sister was growing.

Back then, email and internet will still slow and precious commodities. I didn't want to jam up their inboxes with baby spam, so I figured the blog was a great way to update them on a consensual basis; if they wanted to know, they could visit. That way if they were busy at work I wouldn't tip their already-bursting-at-the-seams inbox over the edge with five photos of the first time the Big Sister rolled over.

I set it up on a free blogspot platform and published my very first post on 15 January 2009.

I was a little bit fearful of the big bad internet back then; so I ticked a box that discouraged search engines like google from finding it. The thought being; only folks whom I sent the link to would find it.

I needn't have worried. You hear bad things about the internet, but for the most part it's a place full of helpful advice and friendly people. Sure there are the horrible Russians who took down the farm website a few years back, but I figure they were going through a tough patch and making some poor choices.

I don't blog there now. After David died and Bearhands' family moved home to Australia, I lost the will. Later I would start this blog and thrill readers across the world with ripping recipes and my witty commentary about life on the farm*.

Incidentally today marks five years since I "came out" as the bird behind the Cooker and a Looker blog. (I'd started writing it in secret several months before, my fear of the internet not quite overcome.)

I still love falling down the rabbit hole of that initial little blog - it's a delicious glimpse back into our past, a little timeline of firsts and family holidays. I'll never unpublish it - it can just sit there in a quiet corner of the internet waiting for the girls to discover. I'm sure the Big Sister will one day look back on her love affair with Uncle Davo and smile. I do.

have you ever written a blog?
leave a link so I can check it out!

*Mum once read the blog in Croatia - that totally counts!

PS. If you're thinking of starting a blog of your own, I wrote some tips for a friend a few years ago.