I started blogging regularly in September 2006, having spent the previous several months, first, wondering what this blogging thing was all about and why anyone would do it, and then, trying out various blogging platforms. I finally plumped for WordPress which by then was, as it still is, the most popular platform.

In those days, most “personal bloggers” (as I call ordinary individuals writing about their chosen topics as opposed to writers of commercial and “professional” blogs) wrote under a synonym. In this, we were wiser than we perhaps knew then, as later generations, who naively splashed their real names and personal information all over social media, were to discover to their cost.

Once I started blogging I quickly discovered the “blogging community”, numbers of personal bloggers like myself, laying their thoughts before the world and one another. In fact, it was the community that found me and I became aware of their attentions through the comments that they left on my blog. I of course returned the favour and the comments section of a blog post often turned into a virtual forum as visitors and blogger exchanged views.

On our blogs we each maintained a blogroll citing all the blogs we followed or found interesting. When we made the acquaintance of a new blogger, we would mine that person’s blogroll for interesting blogs to add to our own list. In that way, we expanded the blogging community to which we belonged.

There were also “blog directories”, websites that collected blogs and ordered them, together with basic information about them, in structured lists. Some included your blog for free while others required a subscription. Searching a directory was usually free. These were useful, especially if, like me, you were interested in blogs in other languages as well as in English. (Three of my favourite blogs were French-language blogs situated in Quebec and Montreal.)

So, where did it all go wrong? The rot set in gradually but the time came when nearly all of the blogs that I knew, in what I have come to see as the halcyon period of personal blogging, had ceased to exist. The natural slow evolutionary process of old blogs dying and new blogs springing up to take their place came to an end: blogs were dying faster than they were being replaced.

In a number of cases, but not all, once productive bloggers diverted into the easier, if more trivial, realms of Facebook and Twitter. It would be easy to say, misquoting the popular song, that “Social media killed the blogging star” – and some commentators have said it – but I suspect that the reasons are more complicated than that. Hypotheses abound: just type “history of blogging” into your search engine to see this.

What prompted me to write this, however, was not the desire to bore you with a history lesson but the fact that I think the pandemic has led to a small but welcome renaissance of personal blogging and that while this is pleasing to see, I am afraid that it will fade away again once the crisis is over. Is there some way to keep what we have gained?

That is not to say that the Web is now awash with personal blogs. It is certainly not. If, like me, you spend time and energy looking for good blogs, you have your work cut out. Those few directories that still exist contain mainly commecial blogs and their personal sections, where they even exist, are full of dead blogs. You can of course search the Web but how? What search string do you use? If you do locate a few personal blogs, 99% of them are dead, last updated years ago.

Don’t people still leave comments on my blog? Yes, sometimes. I am pleased and grateful when they do and I always reply. Other visitors pause long enough to click the “like” button. Whenever somebody leaves a comment on my blog or clicks “like”, I take a look to see whether they too have a blog. If they do and I like it, I add it to my blogroll. By various means, I have managed to garner 20 blogs for my blogroll. This is a “curated” list: I keep up with the blogs on it and if one has not published for a year, I delete it. I keep it in my RSS reader for a while longer, however, in case it wakes up again in which case I restore it to the blogroll.

Why do so few blogs these days have blogrolls? Is it because contemporary bloggers are self-obsessed people with write-only minds? Or is it because, having started only recently, and lacking interaction with other bloggers, the idea of a blogroll has never occurred to them? I am sure that at least some of them know of other blogs that they like and keep up with. So why not let the rest of us in on the secret?

I will therefore end this with a plea to present-day bloggers: if you do not have a blogroll on you blog, will you please consider adding one? All decent blogging platforms provide the blogroll as a built-in function and setting it up is easy. You can rename it whatever you like and it is a way of paying a compliment to blogs you find worthy. And who knows, if you add someone to your blogroll, they may very well add you to theirs! That is a benefit all of us can share.

After lunch we went out for our statutory exercise walk and to fetch our daily coffee. It is a dull and damp day, but warmish at 11°C. Even so, it felt rather depressing.

Bus stop closed

We sometimes use this bus stop in Pentonville Road (when travel is allowed!). It has been closed and a hole dug inside the shelter. This is work to deal with a gas leak. They have tried several times already to deal with it, apparently unsuccessfully. What is annoying is that they close the stop and cause disruption to pedestrians and road traffic and then go away without completing the job.

Jusaka closed

We expected Jusaka to be closed and were not surprised to find that it was. I rather suspect that it will remain closed now until after the New Year. I imagine that trade hasn’t been lively enough lately to justify remaining open. We hope that they can survive the economic downturn.

St John Street dull and damp

We went along St John Street. I waited for a quiet moment to take the photo but the road was actually quite busy, up to pre-Tier 4 levels.

Queueing for the butcher’s

We turned into Chadwell Street and I couldn’t resist taking a photo of the queue at the butcher’s shop. It stretched along the first block of buildings and round the corner into Arlington Way. This is one thing we don’t have to bother with but I hope it isn’t a sign of things to come as shops run low on supplies.

Dead tree

We walked down Arlington Way where we found this tree stump, newly cut. I assume that the tree was diseased and is being removed to prevent the disease spreading. It may be necessary but it always makes me sad. I don’t know how much trees feel or how much they are aware of what’s happening to them and I often wonder about that.

Myddelton Passage

We took a turn along Myddelton Passage beside the Shakespeare’s Head pub (which was closed, of course). We hadn’t visited this quiet backstreet for a while though I did photograph it from the other end on Sunday’s walk. (See Brave new Tier 4 world.)

No leaves but bunches of berries

The vines that straggle over the wall of the pub garden had died back and so had the usually verdant plants poking over the wall of the old New River estate. There were no leaves but there were bunches of small dark blue berries. My botanical ignorance does not allow me to identify the plants.

This brick wall, you may remember, is famous for the badge numbers carved into it by police officers in the mid-19th century. It’s something of a mystery why they would have been lurking here. Various theories have been put forward but none has been confirmed as far as I know.

Police badge numbers

Each one was no doubt carved over a number of visits and they are carefully done, though in different styles. The numbers and letters often resemble those printed in newspapers of the period.

“99 G”

We both liked this one for its well delineated 9s and its elegant ‘G’. Great care has been taken to make neat work of it despite the unevenness of the brick (though that would probably have been smoother and less pitted 170 or so years ago).

Christmas wreath, River Street

Were you expecting some Christmas wreaths? Where we walked today was something of a wreath-desert but we eventually found one, which I think is new to us, in River Street. It is a rather plain one and has been hung from a conveniently placed doorknob.

Decorative window rail

Near the door with the wreath is a window with an ornate rail. Some houses have real balconies, some have pretend balconies (too narrow to go onto) and still others have decorative ironwork like this. A fascinating variety.

Lights in tree and in the room

As we approached Myddelton’s deli, I was rather taken by the lights in this street tree which matched the lights in the first-floor window. It is the only tree in the street with lights which might mean that it is a private venture. Unfortunately, the camera has balanced out the intensity of the lights so that they appear dull in the photo. In reality they are quite bright and stand out even in the daylight.

Christmas wreath, Amwell Street
Photo by Tigger

In case you are hungry for wreaths, here is another one. We only managed two on this trip. (It’s my job to carry the coffee home, so Tigger took this and the following photos.)

Retro items in Pennies
Photo by Tigger

This shop in Amwell Street, called Pennies, sells retro or, according to its website, vintage, items. It always intrigues me though I have never been inside. It is closed now, of course, because of Tier 4, but its window display was quite pretty with coloured lights. Again, though, these don’t show up well in the photo.

House window lights
Photo by Tigger

Our (i.e. Tigger’s) last photo of the walk was this house window which had coloured lights in it which continually changed colour. Very pretty. They are between the curtains and the window and therefore best seen from the street. This is true of numerous houses as though the occupants are wishing passers-by a merry Christmas.

Today is the second day of life in Tier 4. It is also December 21st which, this year, is the date of the winter solstice and from now on the days begin to become longer – a cheering thought!

As I recounted in yesterday’s post, we did not perform our usual shopping run this Sunday. This was for two reasons. Firstly, we had in any case planned to put off this week’s shopping until nearer Christmas to make sure than any fresh food items would last over the Christmas closures. Secondly, we guessed that the shops would be crowded with anxious shoppers. So we left the trolley quietly parked beside the fridge and went out for the walk that I described.

This morning, Tigger decided to make an early run for the shops. Sainsbury’s has asked that we shop singly, not in pairs or family groups, so as to keep numbers in the store to a minimum. Until now we had ignored this advice but today, Tigger took the decision to go alone. Did I feel happy to give the shopping chore a miss? No, actually. In fact, I felt rather depressed by it and waited anxiously for Tigger’s return.

When Tigger came home, it turned out that she had done a good job, buying enough goodies to see us over the Christmas break, and had even picked up coffee from Mercer’s in Chapel Market on the way home – something that is usually my job!

So I think we are now ready for Christmas and can relax, except that Tigger was due to go in to work on Wednesday and Thursday and we are awaiting confirmation that this is still the case as seems likely.

The situation has been rendered still more complicated by France closing its borders to traffic from the UK owing to fears that Britons entering France would bring with them the new strain of Covid 19 which is more infectious than the old one. The shops have warned that this closure could affect our food supply and lead to shortages. During the day we have already been hearing reports of queues at food stores snd customers squabbling over items in short supply.

After Tigger’s foray to the shop this morning (when, perhaps because it was still early, there had been no queues or squabbles), we stayed at home. The weather was wet and miserable and not conducive to leisurely ramblers of the sort we enjoy.

Tomorrow is another day. Let’s hope the weather is more pleasant. If it is, we shall go for a walk and pick up our ritual coffees from Myddelton’s deli.

And – who knows? – we might even photograph a few more wreaths! 🙂

Sunshine in Claremont Square

Welcome to the brave new world of Tier 4!

Before yesterday, we in England had never heard of a fourth tier (though Scotland already had one) and, if truth be told, it’s really just our old enemy lockdown in a flimsy disguise. The fake name is another example of this government’s disingenuousness.

The suddenness of its imposition has caught many of us on the hop, especially those who were planning Christmas celebrations with friends and family and who will be bitterly disappointed.

I have said often enough that Sunday is our shopping day. Well, not this Sunday. We had planned to do our Christmas shopping nearer the 25th and have decided still to do so, hoping that this will prove to be a good move despite Tier 4 disruption. Instead of shopping, we went for a stroll around our neighbourhood with a predictable destination.

Long time no see

We hadn’t seen the cats of Myddelton Square for a long time and I was beginning to wonder whether the occupants if the house had moved away. Today, we at last saw one of the pair, sitting in the sunshine, albeit within the room. He deigned to respond to Tigger with an eye-blink.

Chinese style Christmas decoration

In this nearby window, we saw this Chinese-style decoration. In the auspicious colours of red and gold, it makes an interesting contrast with the more traditional motifs around it.

Christmas wreath with cinnamon

Christmas wreaths continue to proliferate and we added quite a few to our “collection”. I’m not going to include all of them (you’ll be glad to know!) but this one caught my attention for being the only one I have seen so far that includes sticks of cinnamon (though whether real or artificial, I couldn’t say).

Myddelton Passage

We crossed the end of Myddelton Passage but didn’t go down it this time. This is one of those corners which I hardly knew before our Covid walks but of which I have become quite fond.

Church and trees

I looked back and saw that the church and its companion trees made a fine sight in the bright winter sunlight.

Luxuriant wreath

The wreaths we have seen vary greatly from the small and sparse to the large and complex. This was quite a luxuriant one and merited special attention.

Luminous reindeer

In the window next door, between the internal shutters and the glass, is this luminous reindeer. With one of these in his team, Santa wouldn’t need Rudolf to guide his sleigh!

Made of felt

I collected this wreath because it was unique. It is heart-shaped, which is already a little unusual but its main claim to uniqueness is that it is made entirely of pieces of felt. I wonder who made it.

And so to…

…Myddelton’s Deli! We bought our usual coffees and a little something else.

New cat on the block
Photo by Tigger

As we made hot-foot for home with our coffee, we spied a dark shape at a window. From a distance, it looked like a cat. We approached and found that it was indeed a cat, one that we had not seen before, a new cat on the block. We shall look out for him/her in future. No eye-blink this time but maybe later when we have become more familiar.

Coffee and custard tart

I thought we deserved a little extra with our coffee in view of Tier 4 and all the uncertainties. (Just an excuse, yes, I know…) So we had Portuguese custard tarts with our coffee. Very tasty and very moreish so we were right to buy only one each!

Including today, there remain five days before Christmas. Let’s hope there will be no more shocks or surprises during this time and that Christmas Day will be calm and peaceful.

Today, we both have appointments with a needle. Both are at the same medical centre but unfortunately at different times – 3 hours apart, in fact.

The medical centre in question is not our usual GP’s surgery but one beyond Archway in Crouch End. To reach it, we have to take two buses. That is according to the Apple Maps app on my phone which has proved accurate in the past. Let’s hope it is correct this time too.

We intend to go there for my appointment, which is the earlier of the two, and ask whether they will allow both of us to go in together. If they will not, then we will have to come back later for Tigger’s appointment.

Though travel is discouraged in Tier 3, especially if it takes you beyond your local area, it is of course allowed for “necessary” purposes such as going to work or attending medical appointments.

In case you are wondering what medical treatment both of us are receiving at the same time, I will briefly explain. Because both of us (for reasons I don’t need to go into) are classified as “vulnerable”, we have been offered Covid 19 vaccination. This requires two injections, three weeks apart, and today’s appointment is for the first of these.

Sunshine in Claremont Square

Leaving a reasonable amount of time for the journey (Apple Maps times the journey) plus a margin in case of delays, we went to the bus stop. We were lucky with the weather because the sun was shining and the temperature had risen to s balmy 11°C.

York Way, King’s Cross

We changed buses in York Way beside King’s Cross Station.

We boarded a 91 bus and I was able to follow our progress on the Apple Maps app on my phone. The last part of the journey was a 5-minute walk to the medical centre. We arrived with about 25 minutes to spare.

At the centre were a number of people with ready to greet us and send us where needed to go. Inside we were shown to seats while our names were checked against their list.

At this point I wish to say that everyone treated us with great kindness, consideration and good humour. Despite working to a schedule, they took their time over us and did not hurry us. We asked whether Tigger and I could be treated together and this was granted, much to my relief. They then placed two chairs side by side for us while we waited.

After a short wait, we were called by a doctor and taken to a cubicle. She introduced herself, checked our identities and asked a few statutory questions. The vaccination was expertly done and I barely felt the needle.

Vaccination Information Pamphlet

We were offered an information pamphlet and then sent to a seating area where we were asked to wait 10 minutes before leaving, in case of reaction to the vaccination. Once again, despite being busy, everyone was very kind and solicitous of our wellbeing.

Somewhere in Crouch End

As I had “navigated” (with the help of Apple Maps) to arrive here, Tigger took her turn for the return journey. She had noticed that the 210 bus ran nearby and also knew where we could conveniently change to a 43 that would carry us to the Angel. (Did I mention that Tigger carries in her head an encyclopædic knowledge of London’s bus routes?)

Aboard the 210

When the bus came we had to go right to the back to find seats.

Archway

The 210 delivered us to more familiar territory at Archway and here we changed to a 43. This route is fairly busy and I noticed that on couple of occasions, the driver displayed the “Bus Full” sign and did not allow more passengers to enter.

The Angel crossroads

The 43, in its turn, brought us back to our home patch at the Angel.

By now, the weather had turned for the worse and it began pelting down with rain. Happily, we didn’t have far to go but, first, we needed to call in somewhere. Can you guess where?

Saint Espresso

If you said “Jusaka”, give yourself brownie points, but no, not Jusaka which has taken to remaining closed at weekends. Instead, we went to Saint Espresso (just to left of centre in the photo) where they now know us and give us a friendly greeting.

Carrying our coffee, we made our way through the pelting rain to home. Owing to the kindness and understanding of the good people at the medical centre, we will not have to make a second journey to Crouch End this afternoon.

I’m sure we’ll find something else to do with the time if only relaxing at home!

This first injection confers some protection but not complete protection. The second will complete the process but even then, the vaccine is reckoned to be about 95% effective and so one will still have a 1 in 20 chance of becoming infected. Only when a sizeable percentage of the population has achieved immunity will we be able to consider the disease conquered. Until then, we will all, whether vaccinated or not, need to continue observing the social distancing rules, not only for one’s own sake but for that of everyone else.