This is my 500th post.
Little by little, post by post, we’ve come to this point, you and I.
What started as a whim on a sunny summer afternoon in 2005, as simply a way to share pictures of the house move with far-flung family, has come to this.
Back then, I only planned on posting some pictures. I had a point-and-shoot camera and I let it make all the decisions. I didn’t think hard about what to name this blog. I was so pleasantly stunned by how easy it was to start a blog, I just… started it.
And then, inch by inch, mile by mile, we covered some ground, you and I.
We watched a house move.
We went to work and school.
We took walks.
We took vacations.
We tried new things.
We baked a heckuva lot of bread.
We watched births.
We said goodbyes.
We sang.
We fiddled.
We danced.
We made cider.
We learned to milk a goat.
We learned to make cheese.
We sat at the table with friends.
We moved a lot of firewood.
We read books.
We shared secrets.
We admitted fears.
We took pictures.
We cried.
We mourned.
We giggled.
We celebrated.
We wrote.
This outpost in cyberspace isn’t much. It’s not widely read. It doesn’t change the world. It doesn’t matter very much. Yet it’s come to matter very much to me, as a place where I can sort out my thoughts, try out ideas, and be creative. It’s a very real place for me, where we can meet and talk, even though the conversation sometimes seems a little one-sided.
I hope you know you’re in my head as I write. I love when you comment, or send me an email in private. But even when you’re silent, I love just knowing you’re out there.
It’s a big ol’ world. It’s easy to feel lonely, especially on a grey wintry day. It’s a relief to know you’re there, all of you, living your lives, and, at times, connecting with ours.
I can’t thank you enough for joining us on this little adventure.
So, what happens next?
No big changes, no new goals. We’ll just keep on moving. More posts. More miles.
More.
* To clearly see the component photos for the mosaic, take a look at the original photo.
Grongar 
Congratulations on your milestone! Here’s to many more to come.
Thank you, Kelly!
I think that sums up exactly what a blog should be! Congratulations, and hope the next 500 will be as interesting.
Thanks so much, Carole!
Congrats, Rebecca! 500 is a big milestone….and isn’t it so fun to look back and have a record of this time of your life? I think that’s my favorite part of blogging. So happy to have yours to read! 🙂
Thanks so much, Abby! One of the things I like best about the blog is imagining it being used in the future by H as a diary of part of her childhood.
I love what you’ve created with your blog! So many different aspects of yourself, all shared with lucky us. 500 is a BIG deal and this is a lovely way to mark it. You have me wishing that I’d conceived my blog as something more than food (which is why I tire of mine, I think)
Now I’m curious how you made the mosaic…off to investigate.
❤ Thank you! I used a (free) app called MacOSaiX to create the mosaic. I created a "500" image with a colorful gradient behind it in PhotoShop, then created a group in Flickr that contained all of my photos, then told MacOSaiX to use the photos in that group to build a mosaic of 500 photos (20 x 25 grid). It churned away for an hour or so, and came up with what you see.
Wow, 500 posts. I admire your ability to stick to something. And your right, this will be a great look back for H. Congratulations!
Thanks, Karen!
Happy 500! And I will read 500 more, just to be the gal who says that she’s read 500 and then read 500 more…okay, I’m proclaiming to be a Proclaimer, you caught me. (And yes, I love Benny and Joon.) Love that you wrote this post, love the music you included, loved the photos (both the ones I could actually see and the ones that made me feel like maybe we already had the whole bottle of champagne to celebrate), and most of all I just loved seeing Hyla growing into herself these past years…it’s been a fun ride. xo