Spring, eclipse, equinox and stories.

This website was stitched together slowly, pieces added hither and thither over many months.

I have tried to keep it ticking over, aware that it never properly launched, never yet used as intended.

I have learnt about WordPress over this time, themes, plugins, widgets, analytics, I have also taught myself SEO, meta-data, canonicalisation, and all those cunning little tricks available to the webmaster (this word always amuses me, hence having to shoehorn it in here — ever since I first heard it, I’ve had this image of, well, Spider-man).

(Sometimes I tell myself one day I may have an assistant to do these things, or outsource, yet who am I really kidding? Even if I could afford it, I am far too much of a control freak.)

I have always intended to start using the site and, especially, the blog properly this year — it just depended on dates. I thought about my birthday (May) and then I thought about the longest day (up here in the north, that’s pretty long). However, circumstances have meant I have decided to start keeping to a regular schedule earlier than either of these — the northern vernal equinox.

This is a date I have always loved, a special time for me. It has always amazed me how on this date day and night are more or less of equal length across the globe. It is the birth of spring, the days become longer, winter is releasing her dark tendrils, the changing of the clocks helping sever the clutching yearly grasp of SAD. Growing up in Orkney I was aware it is also a time of wind, of storm — a freshening and cleaning of the season, nature putting her house in order for the birthing time. It is also World Storytelling Day (this year on the theme of Wishes — and I have many wishes for this year, with many based on stories).

This year, there’s even a solar eclipse (96.13% obscuration here) to add to these portents.

There you go. Expect a regular schedule to commence from this date, I hope you’ll like what’s in store. I hope I do too.