Why

So why am I writing this blog?

As I wrote a week ago, two of the reasons are to prompt me to become more aware and observant of nature and to learn a bit about the things I've observed. When in the countryside, I tend to see the 'big picture' of the landscape, or patterns in the rocks and clouds, rather than to notice the actual details of a plant, bird or insect, if I see it at all. And while I can appreciate, say, the sound of birdsong, I would very much like to know what I am hearing. Then there is biodiversity and ecosystem - understanding which species are be in the ecosystem and the web of relationships between them, which should be there and aren't, which shouldn't be there and are, and what are the implications of losing this species, or being invaded by that species. Being more aware helps provide me with subject matter, which for a daily blog, even when the posts are short, I'm already finding might be an issue!

I'd also like to keep something of a record, although it's not remotely about 'what the community and/or I did today'. As I've said to some, it's more of a scrapbook of 'things that have interested me'. Even so, I hope it helps to keep my family and friends up-to-date with what I am up to, even when I am having technical problems in reading emails, and being tardy at replying to them.

But I suppose the main reason I started was to give me the discipline of writing something each day, and to see where it leads. Maggi Dawn blogged a few months ago about what keeping a blog has done for her, which sort of inspired me to give it a go. While I'm not doing it to get a book deal, and I'm not even sure I want to be a writer, I was attracted by the idea of 'finding a voice'. Most of the writing I have done to date has been technical - economic, scientific or business analysis - and I would like to develop a more, well, creative or accessible or informal voice.

And it gives me an opportunity to spread bad jokes and puns across the world :-)