I’m over the hill and on the downward slope.
So is the posting challenge.
It’s a slightly blemished record, as I’ve only posted on 59 out of the 60 days, but I’m quite pleased with it. On the other hand, it is slightly annoying to have missed a day. You can probably tell this from the way I keep mentioning it.
What have I learned so far?
I suppose the main thing I’ve learned is not to set myself challenges, and definitely not to tell people about them. If I set myself any others I will make them shorter. When you hit a slump 100 days can seem like an eternity stretching ahead.
It has certainly made me post more, and I’ve been more disciplined about my posting, but I can’t honestly say I’ve improved. If anything the quality of the blog may have gone down as a result of writing short snippets just to hit a target. This isn’t a great loss as it wasn’t great literature or hard-hitting journalism to start with.
I’ve also had a good look at the stats, decided they mean nothing (which I sort of knew anyway), started to get back into reading other blogs and begun to get the site under control.
When I started the blog I did it partly to get back into writing practice and that seems to have worked. I started the 100 day challenge because I seemed to be getting into bad habits and I wanted to start writing more regularly.
Discipline and quantity have both increased with the challenge, as has the average number of readers. It’s not a bad result. It would be nice to see an improvement in writing quality but I’m not sure you can do that in 100 days.
I shall now insert a few more photos from yesterday, as I’m a cynic and cute animal photos always increase visitor numbers. When I was more involved with Twitter I could predict the increase when I had a lamb as the Featured Image. Puppies and small children were quite good too. Piglets, goat kids and chickens didn’t show much of an increase, if any, and it was a cat-free farm so I was never able to test the kitten effect.
Seals at Donna Nook, Lincolnshire
Looking back, I should have seen the potential for problems. A farmer who doesn’t have cats is not a man to be trusted.
It’s not dead, it’s just very relaxed
I promise you the one on its back is alive, it actually turned over while I was watching it.
Sea Buckthorn, Lincolnshire Coast
Finally, a flying bird of the day as an homage to Tootlepedal. It’s a female House Sparrow. And it’s slightly blurred.
House Sparrow
Great flying bird….but the seals were better.
For some reason your comment has put a thought about flying seals into my head…
I think seals win the “very relaxed mammal” award! Great pictures.
Particularly the cub in the puddle! 🙂
A very expressive seal!
I only post once a month, sometimes every two months when things are really busy here. I don’t do challenges other than what I set myself up for.
Your posts are always worth waiting for. I say “your” but obviously mean the cats. 🙂
You do you think taught me how to write? They did! 🙂
They did a good job! 🙂
First belly laugh of the day! (I promise that thing is alive…)
Good to hear! 🙂
Sometimes a challenge is just the thing to get a person motivated. Wonderful photos of seals. But the best is “A farmer who doesn’t have cats is not a man to be trusted.” So true!
Well done on the challenge!
Thank you.
Hey – it’s better to be over-the-hill than under it !!!
That’s true!
Did the seal want you to scratch its tummy?
No, it wanted to bite my hand. 🙂
🙂