Marja-Leena Rathje
Home ::: five years

five years

   
five.jpg
   

Is it a sign of age that one begins to momentarily forget how old one is or how long one's been married? I sometimes have to go back to my birth or wedding date and count from there. A couple of days ago I had such a moment where I really thought I'd missed the anniversary of this blog. One reason for the confusion for me is that I spent a few months learning about blogging by writing a few posts, meekly and tentatively, before actually putting them online. But, newbie that I was, I did not change the dates on those earliest posts that I did keep. Writing about my printmaking started as my main focus and quickly grew to other subjects that interested me and influenced me. A blog is truly a work in progress, isn't it?

Anyway, today is five years since the eventful day this blog went public! Blogging quickly became a passion, maybe an addiction, nurtured by the many connections and friends made around the world. Without all of you, I may have quit. I have slowed down, not writing as much and posting as often, but I'm still here! Thank you all for reading and commenting, dear friends!

As this blog has grown I find that I forget (ach, that word again!) a lot of what I've written in earlier years so I like to dig into the archives for related articles. Should you be interested, here are the previous anniversary posts: first, second, third and fourth.

Marja-Leena | 01/02/2009 | 25 comments
themes: Being an Artist, Blogging


25 comments

Congrats on your 5th anniversary Marja-Leena! Great blog, love your photos and thoughts. Thanks for sharing with us.

Happy Anniversary!!

Happy Anniversary and keep up your wonderful photos and words!!

happy blogversary!

Congrats 5 year of blogging. It's not easy to come up with post sometimes.

Happy blogging b-day! Blogs are an incredibly empowering tool for social, artistic, and political networking, and not only for creating community in space but also for re-creating ourselves in new and creative ways. I hope your blog lives on for many more years; the beauty that you insert into the blogosphere surely helps to remind us all of the blessings before us.

thank you for blogging.

Congratulations! Your blog is wonderful and I always enjoy coming here!

Thank you, each and everyone, for your good wishes and kind words, and for your friendship! Hooray to blogging!

Even a fleeting visit to your blog finds my thoughts being provoked. What a joy this technology is.

Congratulations. By way of an anniversary present I looked up the Penguin Dictionary of Curious and Interesting numbers, a very useful stand by, I find, on such occasions. Five, it reminds us, is the fifth Fibonacci number. Kepler believed that almost all trees and bushes have flowers with five petals and consequently fruit with five compartments.

Olga, thanks and I agree.

Joe, you do find interesting stuff. I haven't heard of Fibonacci but Kepler sounds vaguely familiar though I don't remember anything about his botanical theories.

Happy Blogday, Marja-Leena. Keep up the great work.

I haven't yet completed a year of blogging and find myself wondering about the future: (a) Will I run out of subjects? (b) Will I run out of energy? (c) ... or of interest? (d) Will I start repeating myself? It's encouraging to view your demi-decade and conclude that for you it's "No" to all four. So I shall try to imitate your example.

I enjoy the opportunity for disciplined writing: sticking to the subject (with occasional indulgences), sticking to a self-imposed word limit, and revision. Then cursing myself when despite all this I come up with some gross boo-boo. One benefit is subjects can arrive during a walk to the supermarket and other humdrum domestic chores and, given my word length, I can start writing the piece in my head. Don't even need a camera. But perhaps the greatest benefit is that blogging seems to keep old age at bay. And of course allows me to discover friends around the world. When I glance at the international weather forecasts I now always check what it's doing in Vancouver.

Glad you're there and glad I finally found your blog ... here's to the next 5 Marja-Leena ... Banzai! Banzai! Banzai!

Pica and rouchswalwe, thank you!

BB, believe me I have those questions very often! I do repeat myself, but like Plutarch said once, life is full of repetition. It really is about the joy of observation and sometimes a photo suffices for me. You are the professional writer and only you see the 'boo boos', not the rest of us, I'm sure. And how sweet that you are looking at Vancouver weather. Thanks for the friendship!

And what a lovely 5-year-old blog it is . . .I'm so glad to have discovered you, and I need to spend some time in those archives too. I did quite a bit of printmaking in college (last century) and I'd love to revive it.
Congratulations on five years of elegant expression.

Lainie, thanks! I didn't know you've done printmaking! Wish I could say I've done as much fabric arts as you have, only batiking long ago.

Viisi vuotta! Pitkä aika blogille, mutta hienoa että olet jaksanut. Onnea ja lisää vuosia vaan!

Tuima, kiitos paljon, kiva että käyt lukemassa!

When you get to my age you won't care whether you remember things or not!
Today I threw out my mother's old orientals that were too shabby even to be admired as old orientals. This made me happy!
Seriously, blogs are great. They take up no space and never age! Mine is now 3 1/2 years old and as young and spry as ever!

That certainly is an inspiration and encouragement to continue!

Happy blogiversary, and here's to many more to come.

Hattie, you sound as young and spry as your blog! You must be good for each other for I can't tell your ages. We are both grandmothers so that says enough, eh?

Lucy, thanks!

Happy belated blogday, Marja-Leena! So happy to have found your blog, and glad to see that you're still going strong!

Paljon onnea! Olet silta Kanadan ja Suomen välillä.

Leslee, thanks so much!

Anna, kiitos paljon!