Today I thought I would join in Sadje’s Sunday Poser which asks the simple question “Why do you blog?”

I’ve written on this subject before but it’s always a good one to write about. There were two things that started me off as a blogger. The first one was that I started a volunteer job at a local church, not one I attended but the Pastor was a friend. I did things like entering new members names in the records and making Powerpoint slides for them to show before the service began. I also cleaned the church but that’s not relevant. The Pastor asked me if I’d be willing to keep their WordPress blog up to date and showed me how to log in, write a post or add a photo. It was very basic. It looked interesting and I wanted to make the site look better and do a good job of it. However, I didn’t want to mess up the site by experimenting on it. Around the same time my sister in law commented on one of my Facebook posts that I ought to start a blog. “Why not?” I thought. It would be a good way to do all that experimenting and I didn’t need to publish unless I was happy with it. The church used WordPress.org but I decided that as I didn’t want to mess around with hosting services or pay money for something I wasn’t sure I’d go on with I’d go with the free version of WordPress.com.

The guides I read said write about something you know so naturally I chose dolls as I’d been a collector for years already. I used to post my doll photos on Flickr but they had been making changes to the format that I did not particularly like so it seemed like a very good idea.

The doll blog, which I now share with my sister has been going for eight years and although over the last two years since I moved to Sisters Beach I haven’t written as often I can honestly say I’m not tired of it yet. I’ve come to know many other collectors, some of them very knowledgeable and all of them sharing my love of doll collecting. As I live in the country and rarely get the opportunity to attend club meetings or doll shows it has been a great way to share my hobby with people who are actually interested in it. I also like to think that by providing a place for doll lovers to come, see and comment I may save some information from being lost as my generation of collectors get older and maybe even inspire new collectors.

This blog, the “other” blog, started slightly later and I started it primarily to share photos and thoughts with others. I am aware that many people in other countries are interested in what Australia is like but when they think of us they think of Sydney, Melbourne, Uluru, The Great Barrier Reef etc. People don’t know so much about Tasmania. Some are not even sure if it is part of Australia (yes it is). So one of the main themes of the second blog was to share my photos and write about places I knew. I like to write that sort of thing. When I was young I always had penfriends and would write pages describing places I’d been as well as my other hobbies and interests. In a way the blog is a bit like that except that I’m talking to lots of people. I’ve always been more comfortable writing than talking. I’m shy at social functions although I’ll happily talk to a stranger on the bus.

So that’s why I blog. I like to write , I like to take pictures and I like to share information.

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