Celebrating a decade of blogging (5410)

I chose five significant London places to visit to celebrate my ten years of blogging (5410). They were chosen to celebrate various ideas I have been exploring with my writing and creative work.

1. Covent Garden

Covent Garden is a vibrant and inspirational place. It features a handmade craft market, street entertainment and places to refresh yourself. It can be noisy and busy, but provides a rich and free London experience. 


2. Tate Modern



 

Tate Modern has been our favourite art gallery to visit over the past twenty years. It is superbly located by the Thames and the Millennium Bridge. Art and craft is very important to our lives and wellbeing. I particularly enjoy the surrealists.


3. Greenwich Observatory

 
Greenwich is quite a journey for us, so we don't go there very often. Even so we have seen some marvelous star shows in the observatory and also enjoy the time and space museum and the park and the river. It fits in well with our interest in stargazing, the planets and space therapy.


4. Kew Gardens

Me and my dad both worked in Kew Gardens and my dad's ashes are scattered here. It has featured in this blog on a number of occasions for a number of reasons and holds a special place in my heart.

5. Regent's Park





I have visited Regent's Park a number of times over the years, mostly to visit London Zoo. My daughter attended the Friendly Spider programme here in 2018 and we have since explored different areas of the park. There is a Japanese Garden in Regent's Park which is very handy for visualizations in our bed time meditations.

Ten Year Blog Review: Part Four

This is the last part of my ten year blog review, covering the years October through to December.

October : retirement and pastimes

When October comes around I often think about my craftwork ideas and especially ideas for more knitting, which I find particularly therapeutic. This is one of my favourite pictures of my craft stall.

November : animals and fairytales

I often feel I don't take as much notice of wildlife as I should and I am acutely aware of this when November comes around and I feel obliged to think of animal orientated blog posts. A cat called Maddie adopted us in 2016 and that has made animals feel a bigger part of my life. Above are pictures of various cats who have made it into my creative work over the years.

December : dreams and space

I love that December's theme is so escapist. I painted this 'Weirdscape' picture back in Spring 2016.

Ten Year Blog Review : Part Three

This is part three of my ten year blog review, it covers common themes that have concerned me in the months of July through to September, with accompanying inspirational pictures

 July: education and travel

A continuing theme in July has been my travels around Europe in my late teens and early twenties, they formed the basis of a musical play called 'Another Day, Another Place'. This picture is a collage, including many of the postcards I collected on my travels.

August : work and identity

My job as a librarian has informed several of my blog posts. The above picture is about my reading habits throughout my life. You can view more about my interest in books and my book reviews on GoodReads.

  
 September : childhood and spirituality

I was a Sunday school teacher for about a year from around 2010 to 2011. I focused mostly on virtues and St Paul's ideas about the fruit of the spirit. Above is a picture of my virtue matching game.

Ten years a blogger

I started writing my blog in 2013 and published my first blog post in November, it was my ambition to keep it going for at least five years, ten years would have been even better. So I am very pleased to have reached my ten year anniversary. The purpose of this blog was to showcase my creative endeavours, but my most popular blog posts have been about exploring Stoicism, discovering mindfulness and encouraging people to vote. Blogging is sometimes advocated as a way to ease anxiety and promote mental health. I can attest to it playing its part in my own mental health recovery journey which is why I have produced these 'Just Blog' mindfulness colouring doodles.

Ten Year Blog Review: Part Two

This is the second part of my ten year blog review. The following three pictures show what my themes have been for April through to June.

 April: family and parenthood

My first serialised short story on Wattpad was 'The Need Fairy', which has April's theme of  family and parenthood.

 May : groups and inspiration

The image for 'The Shadow People' was inspired by another serialised short story on Wattpad 'Wise Women's Words', the story revolves around a women's reading group.

June : nature and seasons

Photos of Ruislip Wood have appeared several times on my blog. I used several of my daughter's photos to illustrate stoic quotes. You can find them on my MindfulnessPlus Pinterest page.

Ten Year Blog Review : Part One

I started this blog in 2013. I thought about what its contents would be for six months before putting on my first blog post in November. The following three pictures show what my themes have been for the first three months of any year.

 January : Music and Solitude

A continuing theme for January has been the piano and music concerts I took part in mostly through the years 2010 to 2018. They gave me a sense of achievement at the time and also encouraged my daughter and her friends to perform in public as well.

 February : romance and poetry

I sometimes talked about my old poetry group 'SubVerse' and our continuing quest to explore the 'poetry of surrender' in February. My interest in these matters lay rather dormant until I discovered Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, mindfulness and finally Buddhism, which I have found to involve quite a bit of surrender; to uncomfortable feelings, the present moment and the emptiness and impermanence of life.

March : technology and games
 
I have talked about 'Duchess Doom' quite a bit in March and other months, it is a serialised short story on Wattpad, very much about technology and games.

Celebrating 10 years of blogging (5410)

It's been rather a stressful ten years, but maybe that's just life. My blog has helped to keep me going, but maybe it's time for a break. These are the five London places I hope to visit this year to help celebrate my blog turning ten.

1. Covent Garden
2. Tate Modern
3. Greenwich Observatory
4. Kew Gardens
5. Japanese Garden @ Regent's Park