The Hummingbird Effect, Taking Place On My Blog
Monday, August 03, 2009 |
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Fiddler's Green is the first home I've ever owned. At first it was a house on the water to retreat to between sailing jobs. Later I moved there full time after a shoulder injury put me ashore and landed me into my first job with New Home Sales. Actually, Fiddler's Green is where old sailors go to die.
The legend says old sailors sling their paddle over their shoulder and walk inland away from the sea. If they don't go to hell they go to a sailor's paradise called Fiddler's Green. I loved the lyrics to the sea chanty check them out if you like, http://www.thebards.net/music/lyrics/Fiddlers_Green.shtml, and decided to give this name to my home away from the sea. But anyway back to the hummingbirds.
So when I moved in and began settling in to a life on shore instead of at sea, I decided I wanted to see hummingbirds. My neighbors all said if I hung up a feeder the hummingbirds would come. Not knowing much about birds, fish yes, but birds no, I took their word for it, and purchased a beautiful hanging sculpture of a feeder with 4 different globes to fill with sugar water for the birds. A few weeks later, I was out on the porch looking out over the water as the sunset, talking on the phone with a friend telling her how fruitless my efforts were to attract hummingbirds. I'd hung the darn thing up nearly a month ago and had never seen a bird, instead the sugar water was just evaporating from the globes.
As I talked I decided to take them down and dump the sugar because, while not attracting any birds, the ants were fat and happy. I took the globes inside but the sculpture framework was still hanging there. As I stepped back out on the porch I saw a little bird flying at a million miles a minute hovering where the globes should be. I was so shocked I scrambled inside to get the globes and put them back up. All of a sudden I realized there were several hummingbirds flitting around the trees waiting to come in for a snack. I was so surprised and pleasantly enchanted that I kept the globes filled all summer and was mesmerized by the hummingbirds.
I had to deal with some destructive raccoons, but that's another story.
I liken this to my blog, because at first my thinking was that I needed to start blogging in order to learn more about social media and put myself out into the SM ocean. I'm not going to lie, I was hoping for followers so I could establish myself somehow someway into this whole big whirl of activity on the web. But as I started up the writing and decided to interweave it with my travels, I realized I was writing it for myself. I didn't really need to attract the hummingbirds, I just wanted to get my thoughts down.
All of the sudden, out of the blue, when a friend on facebook told me she liked my blog, I realized wow, some people are actually reading this! Quick get the globes... no not really, but I'm enjoying creating the secret potion that goes into the globes. It's a few parts examination of social media, a few parts talking about my job and a healthy dollop of my travels and myself. It's just the right mixture for me to enjoy what I'm writing about.
I'm sure the raccoons will eventually come out but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. (Or blog about it as the case may be.)
I've added a counter so I can get an idea of how many hummingbirds are coming for a snack.
Labels:
blogging,
facebook,
fiddlers green,
Gwynn's Island,
internet sales,
relationship building,
sailing,
Social Media,
travel,
twitter,
virginia
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