Dinner at the Diner - a year later.

This is it. I have come full circle and returned to where the blogging began on February 1 of last year. It's been a fun year in which I relaxed my own rules regarding the timing of the photo for the five o'clock hour, yet I still completed the goal I originally set for myself: to make a blog entry every day for a year with a featured photo. And with this last entry, I have posted 365 entries for publication, taken 5,440 photos (according to the counter on my digital camera) and posted just a slim fraction of them. Along the way, I've been to North Carolina two times, Virginia a half dozen times, Maine once and across the river to Pennsylvania or New York another dozen or so times. I've recorded the view from the Homestead in spring, summer, winter and fall, enjoying each season in its turn. I gave up sweetener in my tea and completed a 5K. I've gotten reflective on occasion and sometimes captioned my photo with just a single sentence. I've shared favorite recipes (old and new) as well as diner experiences and am still learning the skill of taking photographs while preparing a recipe!
But mostly, it's been the people in my life that have made the blogging so much fun. First there are the people who share in my blog from miles and time zones away. Though I didn't get to visit with these people in person, our shared experience and/or remembering times together has been the next best thing to being there. Then there are those friends who have spent time with me in person (and by extension you through the blog-o-sphere). Cultivating friendships is probably the best past time I know, and I am of the solid (and very prejudiced) opinion that my garden of friends has some of the most beautiful blooms and vibrant beauty that can be had in a lifetime. Last but not least, I have a family willing to be photographed doing the mundane things of life interspersed with the fun things like shopping with my sister-in-law (and the rest of the girls in the family) or joining my niece and nephew for ice skating, snow tubing, swimming, gardening, cake decorating, and overnights here at the Homestead.


During the holidays I realized the demands of writing my proposal for my dissertation dictate I consider new parameters for future blogging. Thus, with this entry, I am completing my blog here on Blogger. Blogger has been a great forum for helping me to get my blogging feet wet and it fit my needs for this past year. I've enjoyed the experience and look forward to continuing it on a regular basis, but I can't keep up the daily pace. I also have a collection of photos and videos that I'd like to share in a slightly different format that I have access through my Mac book. Therefore, my future blogging will be still be called, "It's 5:00, she's somewhere" but it will be "Made on a Mac" and available by clicking here (or anywhere else you see Mac on this page). So, I invite you to bookmark it if you became a regular reader (but not an official blogger follower) and/or subscribe to it through the RSS feed (to get notices about when it has been updated). When you visit my "Made on a Mac" site, you should see some familiar things but formatted differently. I'll be sharing some posts from this past year in the new format, and there are already some new things I couldn't post here, like videos of the kids having winter fun. My contributions should be a little more streamlined and coherent as they are grouped according to various headings in the site's navigation bar. When you get a few minutes, I hope you visit and explore around a little bit. I hope to update it regularly about once (or maybe even twice) a week, still using photos to ground the thoughts and experiences I share through blogging.

And finally, from me and mine, to you and yours, thanks for being a part of this experience.

Look forward to seeing you soon!