The April A to Z blog challenge has spurred me to take action - arriving very much at the eleventh as this is my very first blog!

Checking out the history of the blogging phenomenon, enthusiasm seems to have gathered momentum around 2001. That was the summer I watched a fiery solar eclipse against a bright blue summer sky from the window of my apartment in Notting Hill; the autumn the twin towers were reduced to a tragic pile of ash; and just three weeks later my new life began as I set off for the southernmost tip of Andalucía (and later across the straits to Morocco) with my Abyssinian pussycat.

 

Thirteen years of action, adventure and exploration followed. Although I took plenty of photographs and wrote a stack of magazine articles, I never penned a single blog. Keeping my head well below the parapet I wasn't connected - I wasn't hooked up. Social Media was not even in my vocabulary.

​Back in the United Kingdom at last (minus Abyssinian cat but plus Brittany Griffon dog), I have a presence on Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter. Dipping into a wealth of succinct and informative blogs I'm appreciating the wisdom of bloggers on subjects as diverse as How to Plot a Novel; Improving your SEO; and Staying Healthy Juicing while consuming copious quantities of nutritious Raw Chocolate Puddings. It's a whole new chapter punctuated with another solar event. This time, viewed from Wiltshire farmland the eclipse had a haunting, wraithlike quality as grey skies disguised the sun before parting to reveal a glistening silver disc -  mesmerising, powerful and totally inspirational.

Now the blissful April sunshine and blooming magnolia trees are encouraging me to begin my trial by blogging. Deep down I feel that I'm way too late, that vlogging, tweeting and newer forms are manifesting and will take over soon. We could start 'glyphing' - communicating with pictographs like Egyptian hieroglyphics but oh drat, that's old news....

With thanks to: