New Beginnings...and Origins.

 The snowdrop is often regarded as a symbol of new beginnings, signalling the end of winter.

I'm always delighted to see the flowers because I detest the dull, dark days of the winter months and now, in February, the days are getting longer and I feel full of renewed enthusiasm.

Perhaps I'm letting myself get carried away with this new enthusiasm - I've set up a new Bluesky account and started this blog to run alongside it.  Will I be able to post on a regular basis - a good question, with no definite answer.

This account really began five years ago on Twitter.  We were in a Covid lockdown at the time and I was rather bored, so I started the account to post some photos of the view from "Behind My Fence".

I soon realised that the name suggested hiding behind the fence - a siege mentality - when, in fact, I was looking beyond it.  That meant a quick change of name to "Beyond My Fence".

I continued to post photos but never really engaged with any other Twitter users and then, gradually, I posted less until it reached the point where Twitter became X.  Getting swamped with ads and pro-Trump propaganda, I stopped bothering to post.

Then I discovered Bluesky.  I started an account and began posting photos - and discovered a friendly, welcoming group of people.  I am well past retirement age but I still work on an irregular basis, which meant I didn't engage with people as often as I would have liked.

This year I have reduced my workload, so I hope to have more time to devote to Bluesky.  The original account will stay in place for posting photos and the new account will focus on books - both reading and writing.  The idea of the blog is to allow me to expand on some Bluesky posts beyond the limitations of 300 characters or what can be included in Alt text.

So, here's to new beginnings...