Happy New Year! I hope 2018 is off to a great start for everyone!

As those of you who have been following this blog for a long time know, this year saw a real slow down in my blogging activity. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and, well not quite soul searching, but debating and struggling and wondering what the heck and generally trying to figure out why I haven’t felt like blogging much and what do I want to do about it. I came very close to deciding to give it up completely. It has been 14 years of book blogging and that is a pretty long time. However, I like blogging and I don’t want to give it up entirely.

But what does that mean, exactly? I can’t say I have a full answer just yet, but it does mean there will be changes. The biggest change will be a re-focusing of what this blog is about. I have enjoyed Sunday-what’s-going-on-in-the-garden and The Dashwood Chronicles posts very much and I want to expand on that sort of thing. More garden and chickens but also food and environmental issues. More, hey I read this really interesting article about XYZ.

Also cycling. I bought a racing license for the year and Astrid and I are going to test ourselves in some honest to goodness sanctioned races. We’ll be placed in a category! We’ll earn points! There could be fame, glory and prizes! The last bit is highly unlikely but at the very least there will be challenges, adventures and fun and in a way that’s even better.

There will still be books, that’s for sure. But I’m not going to try and blog about everything I read anymore. It’s begun to feel like an obligation and that’s no good. When I let keeping meticulous track of my reading go halfway through the year, I started to feel much freer — to read what I wanted at the pace I wanted, to not worry about taking notes but simply to enjoy the experience. The not taking notes part was a revelation. It had been so long since I simply read a book I felt like I was getting away with something. I plan on keeping track of the books I read, if I don’t, I know I will forget what I have read and in two years realize when deep into a story that I have read it already. The keeping track though will be a bit more casual and mostly over at GoodReads, so if you feel inclined to see exactly what I am reading feel free to check in on me there.

I feel like I have been compartmentalizing my life between work and home, between gardening, books, and cycling, between all the things that matter to me. The separations are beginning to chafe because the separations aren’t real. So instead of a book blog with forays into gardening, I guess this is going to turn into a more personal blog with forays into books. Or something.

I realize this probably means some of you who visit regularly will stop coming by and while I am sad about that, I am also okay with it. We all gotta do what we gotta do. No hard feelings.

I’ve also been spending a lot less time online and it is grand. I have had time to start knitting again. I forgot how much I enjoy it. I will definitely continue to visit your blogs but I might not be as regular a visitor as I have been in the past. I will miss that, you are such a great bunch of folks, but I hope you understand.

I plan on making some changes to the blog itself since it won’t be just about books any longer. A new name, a new look, but the same URL, which might be weird but there is no need to ditch everything, right?

Thanks for reading. Thanks for sharing books and stories. Thanks for allowing me to be part of such a great online community. You all rock!

Here’s to a New Year filled with good friends, good books, gardens, chickens, and all sorts of exciting adventures!