Greetings this beautiful Friday morning in Prescott, AZ,
March has been a busy month. This post will act as a month end record both for photography, and WOTY. My Word of the Year is CURATE. The purpose is for me to curate and create order, functionality, education, and beauty out of my life.
LAST ON CARD PHOTOS
My walk with Puppy Girl on March 30 after a rain. The clouds were so beautiful. It’s hard to capture the magnificence of nature.
March Weather in Prescott
We had a smattering of both snow and rain and a ton of wind.
– Denzel Washington.
WOTY Curate
Creating order in photos alone is a big task. It’s boring to write about, and yet it pulls me. This week Google informed me that 80% of primary Gmail account is full. Did you know that if you eliminate the new photos from June, 2021 forward on the Google Photos app on you iPhone, it deletes them from all your phone and iCloud files? I can’t even see them to delete them on my computer. It only costs $20 per year to have all the storage I’d ever need, and I’m debating with myself over $20. Is that crazy? I did not ask Google to back up all my photo files.
Books I Ordered for April’s Reading
- How to Read Like a Professor by Thomas Foster recommended by Yvette Prior
- Tina Lost in a Crowd by Miriam Hurdle (Showers of Blessing) finished and left a review on Amazon.
- A Life in Parts by Bryan Cranston
- Lady by the River – a collection of short stories by Yvette Prior and friends
Curating for Better Blogging
As part of the curating process, the curator puts their organizational efforts to good use. For me, that is blogging. March had the least number of views this year, 600 less than the high in January. I didn’t feel the pain. It’s most likely because I did not try to blog every day with challenges like Bloganuary and Squares in Feb. As much as I love Squares, blogging every day wears me out, and trying it for two months in a row is more than I can do and still have a life. March Story Chat kept Yvette and me super busy, but so did my other regular challenge posts.
Better doesn’t necessarily mean more posts or more likes or visitors. I think it means more enjoyment and more engagement. Who cares if you get more RV dealer, or toilet paper sales blog likes!
One of Yvette’s commenters on Story Chat got lost in spam. The two of them chatted and she urged me to look through my spam files to find his comments. I did – all 701 of them, and he was somewhere in the middle. She asked if there was another spammer who liked her post. I hadn’t bothered to check, but at her insistence, I reported him as spam and deleted him. She worried that he had her email address. I don’ know if that happens when you answer a comment.
Result: I also closed comments after 30 days on Always Write. So if there is a post you like from the past, just write your comment on a recent post unless you are a spammer.
More March Pictures for Thursday Doors and Monday Windows
Some sad March doors in Urban Prescott on Granite Street were very close to where the wonderful murals were that my friend Monica and I saw. What a contrast to the beautiful pillared bank doors with smartly clad windows.
According to Hugh Roberts and many blogging experts, titles make the biggest difference in how many visitors your posts get. If you host a challenge, your title needs to include the Challenge Name in the title plus a description. “How Do You Make Green Coffee? was my top March post that was not one of my challenges. It was a post for Natalie’s Coffee Share which gave me an opportunity to post photos from our main March trip: MIM – Musical Instrument Museum. It also met the Six-Word Challenge by Debbie from Travel with Intent.
More Musical Instrument Magic
I wonder what happened to those extra 400 January visitors, though. That will be part of my curating process. Are they spam or friends that lost interest? How much effort should I put into finding out? Or should I ride off into the night with the Einstein of my life without a care in the world?
I celebrated 10 years of blogging in March.
Debbie Harris of Deb’s World also celebrated 10 years of blogging. Hugh has a great post on this topic when he examined his 8th year anniversary.
Quick Analysis of 10 Years
- In 10 years I’ve published 1,482 posts and have 39 drafts.
- I’ve had a few private photography lessons from some of the greatest bloggers on the planet, Cee Neuner and Leanne Cole.
- My biggest years in terms of the number of posts published were: 2013, 2016, and 2021, with last year being the highest by about 100 posts.
- The number of likes in 2021 was about three times as many as in 2013 when I was new yet super enthusiastic but was still struggling to find my focus.
- Last year was amazing because I had started a series of interviews about people who hosted and participated in challenges in 2020. It built in 2021. I’ve always loved challenges but had never studied them.
- When I started hosting three challenges, my blog gained the structure and the outward focus it missed in my early years.
- Terri Webster Schrandt (Sunday Stills), Cee Neuner, Miriam Hurdle and I are discussing a possible meet-up in the Portland, Oregon area in August or September to visit the dahlia fields which are open from August 1st into October, weather permitting. If you haven’t seen pictures on Cee’s site of the dahlias, it’s worth the click on her name to go search for them.
- My posts have gotten longer going from an average of 533 words in 2012, to averaging 500 words per post for the first five years. In 2022 I averaged 848 this year bringing my last 5.25-year average to 720 words per post.
- I landed a book deal because of my blog in 2014, Images of America Woodlake. Proceeds from book sales all go to the Woodlake High School Foundation.
- I’ve made some forever friends over the years – too many to even list. I still think about some of my first friends that no longer keep in touch and hope they are well and happy.
- I met four bloggers in real life over the first five years of blogging along with one spouse, parents, sisters, nieces, cousins, friends, and a daughter and her husband. (From my three-week trip to Australia to meet Leanne Cole and Carol, (the Eternal Traveller.) You probably know those relationships have lasted and are forever friends.
- I’ve met four bloggers in the last five years. Thanks to zoom, I’ve talked to so many of you. Cee Neuner organized a successful weekly Zoom blog meet-up that went on for a year until we all got distracted by real-life after COVID let up.
- This week I discovered several people who publish a weekly chat, and I saw comments from so many of my friends on my new friend’s posts. Reading comments on a blog is like mingling at a party. You never know who is going to be there, and seeing friends I know where I did not expect them puts a big smile on my face. If I put a like on one of your comments on someone else’s post, don’t get offended. It’s my way to smile at you and wave hello without trying to barge into the conversation.
- In real life a blogging party looks like my first AZ Blogger meetup. We all felt like we had known each other for years. And then their friends started becoming our friends, too.
March Click (not clique) Leaders on Always Write
Challenges That Inspired This Post
#TheChangingSeasons, #MonthlyPhotoChallenge, WOTY, What’s on Your Bookshelf, Six-Word Saturday, Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #192 Earth, Natalie’s Weekend Coffee Share, If We Were Having Coffee, A Chai and a Chat #179, #Thursday Doors, Monday Windows, FOTD, Last on the Card
Now It’s Your Turn
Do you have an accountability post for March? The challenges I listed above are good ways to highlight them and are reasons to write them. You’ll be glad you did. Happy blogging. No Fooling!
Marsha Ingrao - Always Write 
99 responses to “The Connecting Power of Coffee Shares”
[…] Prescott Public Art treasures on Friday. There’s still time to post on this week’s PPAC post until Thursday at noon. (“Hello Kitty,” as Johnbo said in a […]
LikeLike
[…] at Always Write (celebrates 10 years of blogging! […]
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for the link, Ju-Lyn! I’m honored. 🙂
LikeLike
So much to love in this post Marsha, you are a talented and clever blogger who makes friends everywhere you go it seems! Congratulations on your 10 years of blogging and thanks for the mention, I hope you enjoy your meetup.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Deb! We are a lot alike in many ways, then. You are very talented and clever as well. Full of life and fun with lots of friends. You’ve taken blogging to another level with your zoom meetings about so many topics.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Mutual admiration society right here!
LikeLiked by 1 person
You bet!
LikeLiked by 1 person
What a milestone, Marsha! Congratulations on a decade of blogging!
I love glimpses of the desert through your lens … so beautiful ….
and the additional peeks at the instrument museum – so much fun!
And thank you again for linking up to The Changing Seasons – we love having you!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Ju-Lyn. It’s nice to have a place to park our thoughts for the month.
LikeLike
Ditto! I feel you completely!
LikeLiked by 1 person
YAY!
LikeLike
Hi I enjoyed your post here and your curate word really fits what you do.
I read the part about where you found Mahesh’s comment in spam (thanks again for finding that – and it does make me wonder how many spam comments get missed) and I don’t mind so much about the email if the other spammer got it (the one that made it through to leave a comment)I was just noting that I think it is one more way spammers try to access that info (but I think my email is pretty well known) I also think they might access something else when we reply – like more details and so I just wish I never replied to their comment –
but with that said – it is a small non issue and hopefully your tips will help others.
wishing you a nice day and a great month ahead
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Yvette. I think it’s always a good idea not to answer anyone who 1. doesn’t have a working WP site or 2. whose WP site is in a language you don’t know, or 3. has no followers you know, or 4. has content you object to. I don’t know what can happen to you if you don’t answer, or even if you check on them. I did check on that person before I deleted him and marked him as spam. I get quite a few people that like my posts and I don’t respond to them because they don’t comment.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi – I like your list – and agree with those 4 things
LikeLiked by 1 person
Awesome. I always like people who agree with me! LOL
LikeLiked by 1 person
😁
LikeLike
Congratulations on your blog’s 10th Birthday. I found lots to read and look at here today. I have been blogging since late 2010 and it’s self hosted blog. Over time, I have deleted many posts and the bulk of the photos as it reduces the ‘weightiness’ of my blog’s back ups (and cost!) on my host. I also found so many of those posts and photos were no longer ones I wanted to share. For a number of reasons.
Since the beginning of this year, I have chopped and changed a bit as my devotion to my weekly link up over 280 weeks (since Sept 2016) was waning.
I proposed a change to a Once a Month link up on a Monday when the weekly one was too much for me. That lasted one time.
I “missed” my Monday connections so now, it’s fortnightly.
It’s called Life’s Stories. And you are, of course, always welcome to add a post …Monday 11 April is the next one.
As we move into Autumn, and you into Spring may it bring us happiness and health.
Denyse.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Conratulations Marsha! You have been busy!!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Congratulations on your 10 years of blogging, Marsha! Cheers to many, many more!
And thank you for the mention. It is greatly appreciated.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, and of course you are welcome. It’s what bloggers do to support each other. 🙂
LikeLike
Congrats on 10 years of blogging, Marsha! Your blog stats are impressive. Love your cloud and Prescott weather photos. Curating photos is a big job. I try to tackle it in small chunks. Thank you for the mention. Have a wonderful weekend!
LikeLiked by 1 person
You have a great weekend also, Natalie.
LikeLike
A veritable plethora of potpourri. I love the clouds and the rogues gallery at the end. Leann Cole. Oh my! You name dropper you!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Am I now. Carol and I spent several days with her in Melbourne. She drove us to the Healesville Sanctuary. We took pictures in Docklands. It was an amazing trip. I also met her for a few hours when she came to San Jose and I had been at a meeting there. Since then we have just chatted on Facebook. You can search any of my posts about Australia and see where we went, if you are interested, but she asked me not to take pictures of her, so you won’t find any.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I used to look at her site frequently. Not so much in recent years. I’m not interested in pictures of her.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I just found her site again. It had been hacked the last few times I’d looked for it. She is doing more on YouTube now.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Her photos are VERY artistic.
LikeLiked by 1 person
She has a degree in graphic arts, I believe. She is very artistic.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Meeting kindred spirits in real life is one of the best things about writing a blog. Just think of all the wonderful adventures we’ve had because we both decided to try blogging.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I know. Your ears must burn constantly. I talk about my trip to Australia all the time. I hope we will eventually get together again. It’s loosening up some, but people are still more cautious, don’t you think?
LikeLiked by 1 person
We have no plans to travel overseas at this stage and wouldn’t consider a long haul flight.
LikeLiked by 1 person
We wouldn’t either!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I loved this update Marsha. Your photos were fun. I have yet to visit the Dahlia farms even though dahlias are one of my favorite flowers. It was fun reading through your 10 years of blogging walk down memory lane and I really enjoyed the information about curating when it comes to blogging. Have a great weekend.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Kirstin. It’s been a great 10 year ride. If it was I job, I’d have earned a dinner or a watch! LOL
LikeLike
Haha…ditto. I love blogging, but defintely wouldn’t make money doing it. It’s for fun and journaling.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That is true for me too!
LikeLike
You have been busy! And the last 10 years seemed to be so much fun.
LikeLike
Yes, they have been both busy and fun. And that’s only the blogging part.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Congrats to a job well done 👍
LikeLike
Thanks so much, Teresa, and thank you for being such a big part of my blogging life. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Glad to have been a small part of it 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
LikeLiked by 1 person
Where to start!!!
OK thanks for being past of Last on the Card with fabulous clouds.
I check spam every day now and if there’s no icon I just speed along, usually only two or three pages over twenty-four hours. Also a lot are using the same post so elimination on that makes it easy as the post is old. That wouldn’t happen if I closed a post.
Love the photos of Prescott and the rainy ones.
For Squares, I try to get organised when I find out the theme, square up some photos, give them names and a date or number and put them into schedule for that date. When Becky does a post I put that post’s link onto the scheduled one for the next day so no daily posting wear out.
It would be fun to do a look at my stats. I used to have the what’s going on stat fretting but now don’t care I am here to have fun, hopefully make people smile and enjoy my part of my world as much as I do.
Phew, sorry to have a long comment Happy blogiversary Marsha 🤗
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for your wonderful comment. Being an educator, stats were very important. What we found from stats, even onces that couldn’t show the whole picture is a taste of reality. For example, if I’m spending hours putting together a PPAC post and no one visits it, then it might be fun, but why post it? I could just as easily keep it to myself. Even though this is fun and just a hobby, I want to post what interests people rather than just burying my head in the sand and pressing publish. That’s why I find stats interesting not fretful. I know others might have more or less visitors, and that doesn’t worry me in the least I only compare my stats to myself. How am I doing based on how well can I do? If that makes sense. I tried doing the posts ahead of time, and I did for a while, but eventually I ran out of time and pictures that had been finished. Nonetheless, I’ll do it again because I adore Becky and she has good themes, and a lot of people play and I get to meet them too.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Most welcome. I enjoy putting posts together and posting photos and always hope that someone does drop in and I am always thrilled if I get a comment or two 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Me too, BB. That’s what makes it fun.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Happy blogaversary! I use Dropbox to store all my photos, but recently cleaned up those on my laptop and phone. It’s a massive job and I sometimes wonder what the point is of keeping the ones I keep. Then I begin all these grand plans to keep up with physical photo books and yadda yadda yadda. My numbers (never really massive) have been down this year and I’m yet to work out why. Maybe that can be my job for this afternoon – taking a deep dive into my blogging stats. I’m still trying to find that sweet spot of what I want to writ about and what people want to read about and whether it’s worth juggling different blogs. Hey ho.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have several blogs. I used to keep up three on a regular basis and then had one more for Woodlake History. I still have them except for the one that cost me money and had oodles of problems. I also maintained websites for Kiwanis, the Woodlake Chamber of Commerce, the Botanical Garden, California Council for the Social Studies, and San Joaquin Valley Council for the Social Studies. Not to mention Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter accounts for most of them. Now that was insane! Keeping this one personal blog is like a walk in the park compared to managing all of that and reporting the progress to the people in the organization! Anyway – long response, too! My main reason for doing what I do is that I enjoy it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Happy 10th! I hit that milestone later this year, but I’ve been much more erratic and less productive than you! Keep up the good work 😊
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nothing wrong with eratic and less productive. We are the editors in chief of our own blogs.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I know, I used to be very irregular with my posts, and even had a seven month hiatus for no reason at all! What you see on my blog now is as regular and productive as it has ever been 😊
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s awesome, Clive. It must mean that you enjoy it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I do! Since I started Tuesday Tunes it has expanded to become a focal point of my week. It has introduced many new blogging friends to me, which is what it is all about, really.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It is for me, too.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oops.. forgot to say what I first meant to say. By the time I got to the bottom of your comments, I’d forgotten. The cloud photos are spectacular as well. Well captured.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks. They were so magnificent after a rain, I had to stop and take a picture. Puppy Girl never minds a brief stop. She has plenty of sniffing to do. How is your baby, BTW?
LikeLike
Full of piss and vinegar. She has so much energy!!!!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
That a big project to take on!
LikeLike
Little girl, big job.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Exactly.
LikeLike
She gets into so much trouble. Tipped over and broke one of my favorite sculptures today, but she’s so darn cute that I’m loving her up five minutes later. I can’t stay mad at her.
LikeLiked by 1 person
She is precious. That’s how young animals survive. They are just so darn cute. Then once we love them, we’re hooked for life. 🙂 Sorry about your sculpture.
LikeLike
I can fiix it.. not the first precious object broken in my life, including my heart1 ;o)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Awww. I’ll never forget your first kiss story. Adorable. We all get our hearts broken if we dare to love. But I’d rather love and mess up than never to love.
LikeLike
Me, too. Yes, that was a good first kiss.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Happy weekend, my friend.
LikeLike
And to you, too. I enjoyed seeing your photos.
LikeLike
Marsha, that Forever Was Boutique photo is epic. I could not figure out what was going on until I enlarged it..and then it got even better. You need to do something with it. Frame it or enter it into some competition.
Did you all agree to wear blue for your AZ blogger meet-up?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Isn’t that funny that we all had blue on? No we did not even talk about clothes. LOL
LikeLike
Congratulations on 10 years of blogging! And also thanks for connecting with my blog.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you and you are welcome. It’s my pleasure.
LikeLike
you blow me away with your picture organization and it shows.. such gorgeous pics Marsha! 💖💖
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Cindy. It’s getting somewhat easier to find what I want. This was an easy post because the point is to post pictures from that month.
LikeLiked by 1 person
oh that’s a relief! Happy to hear that!! 💖💖
LikeLiked by 1 person
🙂
LikeLike
I started my first blog in the summer of 2012. It is no longer public. You commented 52 times. The first comment was about your 3 cats and a dog.
And the next 5 I had to unspam. 😦
I’d say, “You’ve come a long way, baby.” 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
You have a record of my progress, LS. How funny! I remember a lot of us ended up in Spam in those days. WP has gotten better at identifying real people. Why did you make your first blog private? When did you start the new one?
LikeLiked by 1 person
I had no idea what I was doing with the first blog. Started again in 2013 with the same set up and theme etc – but a bit more organized.
I still have the first blog. I still use it to test out some new posts and play around with the block editor.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I got tired of maintaining more than one blog.
LikeLike
Congrats on 10yrs!
LikeLike
Thanks so much!
LikeLike
A tip of the hat to you, Marsha. As I was getting ready to finish up my next post for Monday Window, I scanned through my incoming mail and saw a notice that you liked a post of mine. A very old post. That caught my attention. I stopped what I was doing to follow this new trail. Well, I will be sending you a message to find out how you got to that old post. I have some curating to do to, but you got me intrigued …
LikeLiked by 1 person
It was a dark and stormy night, and I couldn’t sleep. I wanted to find a window, and low and behold I found your first post of Monday Windows. It was a trick of the WP gremlins.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have no idea how many cloud photos I have in my files, but I should probably create a subfolder just for them. I find them fascinating also.
Congrats on your anniversary. I enjoyed reading your re-cap of the last 10 years. You’ve been busy!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Janis. Yes, clouds attract me, too, and I just have to snap their pictures. In my last ten years I’ve been “retirementally challenged.” I’ve finally come into my own now, I think. It’s hard to go from 60+ hours per week to 0.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wow, Marsha. It looks like you kicked March to the curb in style 🙂
I love the photos, especially the Whatever it Was Boutique. That’s such a cool name. The flowers and plants are so nice to see (we only have a few hints of spring here) and I love seeing water drops on the leaves. Thanks for including Thursday Doors in your mix.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Dan. I’m becoming more aware of taking door pictures. It is such a cool challenge.
LikeLiked by 1 person
🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Congratulations on 10 years, Marsha! This post is chock full and thank you so much for the shout out! I WISH that was my totem. I need to start painting when we get back next week. Hans just finished putting in a 40×40 area of sod in our backyard, more area than our former backyard! Took 3 weeks, etc and he lost 8 pounds!
He gets distracted with all his male neighbors who like to chit chat. My point is that most of my friends are online because of blogging, and a phone call away, like you, and many are forever friends.
Your rainy day and weather pics are beautiful! Prescott is such a nice place to live.
That’s crazy about the spam comments. I did the same thing by limiting the time to Comment. My theory about January is I believe many people get re- excited about blogging as a NY resolution, come out the gate too fast then stop when they fail to get a lot of followers. We all know it doesn’t work that way. Takes time to curate as you describe and consistent writing and follow up. I bet this post took you a while. Great reading. We’ll chat soon, finishing my packing for an early start tomorrow!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m glad your friends are online. Not that you don’t make new friends everywhere you go, but it’s so nice to keep in touch. That lasts no matter where we live or move. I think I will come up and work for Hans. I could stand to lose back the 5 pounds I’ve gained since I was sick. A lot of heavy work would certainly do that! Have fun packing. You’re going to have to take things for all kinds of weather!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have two close neighbors I would count as friends, ladies I can hike or kayak with and have coffee. All good. And you would not want to work on this sod. It was so heavy, Hans nearly broke his back 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
You are right. I’ll hang on to my back and my pounds. Literally you have to weigh the cost of doing manual labor. Vince is finding that out as he’s working on the house in Scottsdale. He is exhausting himself, even with a young man who helped him. But, on the other hand, he is pleased with himself and his project. He’s done this all his life. I came across some old pictures of him with his second wife, and there was the house all torn up in the bathroom and kitchen. LOL
LikeLiked by 1 person
Congratulations Marsha on your blog anniversary. Thanks for the mention my friend. You’re very gracious
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s a nice thing to say, Sadje. Thanks. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
You’re welcome ☺️
LikeLiked by 1 person
Congratulations, Marsha! Enjoyed these photos. Happy bloggers! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I don’t normally connect twice, but you had such a great topic, I thought it deserved at least one more link from me.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Congratulations on your blogiversary!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Ritu. I’m glad I discovered your chai and chat. Those revealing kinds of posts are the most interesting.
LikeLike
🥰🥰🥰
LikeLiked by 1 person