498th post

While I've had this blog from March 2010, with a first blog post from my friend Mark; I didn't start posting until mid-2011. Even then posting was sporadic and it took a long time until I felt comfortable with what I was posting on the blog. I guess it took a long time for me to realise that, while I enjoy seeing that people read and comment on my posts, at the end of the day I would still be posting even if nobody was looking.

I realised that this is my diary. While there are certain topics that I want people to know that I will definitely post about; there are times when I diverge and post something just for fun or out of interest. For me, this blog documents my journey into the wonders of the natural world and I'm really glad that I can also share the journey with you all.

Ever since the beginning of 2012, when I first realised my interest in plants; I've used the blog as a digital herbarium, maintaining the adage "Take only pictures, leave only footprints". As my inquiries into plants deepens, I gain ever more respect for the natural world and the awesome ways it evolves to face the challenges of life. I hope to share ever more information and eventually knowledge with you all - not only in the hope that you'll learn something new and interesting; but also so you can correct me when I'm wildly off the mark!

I recently went down to 5 posts per week to ensure I was only posting 'the good stuff'. In addition, I'm going to try something that I haven't done before. I'm going to try a couple of weekly features. The first will be called "Word day Thursday", where I take a word from my newly acquired Oxford Dictionary of Plant Sciences and do a bit of research about the history of the word and its application. The second will be my 500th post and will be called "Five Fact Friday" whereby I'll round off the week's posts with five facts about a particular topic.

While I shall endeavour to ensure a weekly frequency; regular readers will know that I have a 'black dog', so sometimes I need to switch off for a while.

Thanks for reading so far - hopefully the best is yet to come :)