Compromise Sandwich... the dandelion is from the lawn. The avocado is not.

The other day I was walking down the main street of my town, Chebucto St. About ten feet in front of me, a woman walking slowly with her young daughter was chatting with a man who was standing on the other side of the street. I overheard her say, “The peepers are out!”

I was walking quickly, so I overtook her soon after. As I walked by her, I said, “The peepers are out, eh? That’s nice!”

Tonight I opened the sliding door and stepped out onto the deck. I realized that since that little encounter, I had not actually heard the peepers. I stepped into the darkness, and then my eyes adjusted and I could see. And I could hear, peepers. That spring sound. I love it! It’s comparable in clarity to the sound of a sweet, clean, rushing creek.

(My boyfriend happens to be irritated by the sound of peepers. I really don’t understand that. To each their own, I guess!)

Blogging is a funny beast. If you want your blog to be a Blog with a capital B, that attracts readers and responds to what they like and keeps on growing, then it’s this weird mix of – sharing personal details about your own life, and trying for an intimate voice, but also marketing yourself – which means being hyper-aware of your own looks, your own voice, what you have to say and how you’re saying it. (Or other times, like now, just ignoring what I might sound like to others, just saying “frig it!”)

Sometimes I miss my old blog, where I really did feel I was typing into a void, that there might be 5 or 6 people reading it. I’d share it on Facebook when I felt like it. I’d write a post and then just publish it.That felt good, it felt way more free.

With this blog, I’ve been getting caught up in planning, and in thinking things out. You know, thinking about what will get posted when. Which, you have to do, if you’ve got contributors, and interviews, and you want to give off a certain impression of “having my sh*t together”.

But a part of blogging, a necessary part that keeps the writing interesting and fresh to read, is spontaneity. Bulletins from “the moment,” from whatever the blogger is living.

Even if that moment is just – hey, it’s Wednesday, and the peepers are out, and it’s weird being a blogger sometimes.

(And, I’m happy I’ve got a wider audience now, I really am. Whatever this project is – at the moment I see it as a weird hybrid of research paper, personal + travel blog, creative writing journal, scrapbook, and newspaper – it’s fun, and I’m loving it.)