Tagged...

I've been tagged by The List Writer to answer the following questions:

Why I started my blog ?

As I said in my first ever post, I stumbled into Blogland innocently enough and pretty soon I found myself hooked. After several weeks of lurking, I decided to join in. I was way out of practice in the writing department and having decided to go back into full-time education, I thought it might be a gentle start into the putting down of words. It has also been a revelation in how much pleasure there is to be found in sharing the good and not so good parts of my life. I've always found writing quite cathartic and although the subject matter these days is very different, I find it very therapeutic.

How I came up with the name of my blog?

Dragonflies are my thing! Blogger allowed me to have the title but not the URL, hence the dragonfliesandchickens bit - that was a quickly thought-up thing to get me on my way! I did look up to see what the Dragonfly blogspot was all about and was disappointed to find it defunct now, and not at all crafty...

Do my friends and family know about my blog? What do they think of it?

None of my family know that I blog. They aren't very computer-minded. I've told a couple of friends that I blog, but I've not given any details for them to track me down. I guess if they found me off their own back, that's fine. No2 kind of acknowledges what I'm doing when I'm in front of my screen, but doesn't really show that much interest (to me, anyway!)

How do I write my posts?

I'll usually write a post to share something that I've done or made. More recently, to mark a particular event. I like to think of my blog as a journal or diary of my life. I like to include lots of photographs, so I suppose it's a bit of a glorified photo album, but with much more written detail. I don't find it takes too long to write once I get going and I've learnt that sometimes it's quicker to upload the photos one at a time rather than 4 or 5 at once.

Ever had a troll or had to delete unkind comments?

No, I've never had either. I've only had one spammy comment, so I've been pretty lucky.

Do I check my stats? Do I care who/how many read my blog? Do I try to increase traffic?

I've never thought of checking my stats, (not really sure how I'd do that) but I've just added a site meter and the visitor map thingy after spotting them on other blogs I read. I was surprised to see that this is my 51st post and no, I don't really do anything consciously to increase traffic.

What I like and dislike about blogging?

I'm always delighted to read the comments that get left and am trying to reply to them all as quickly as I can. I love the inspiration that comes from reading other blogs and the sense of community that comes with it. The down-side, as others who have been tagged with this Q & A have said, is the ridiculous amount of time that I now spend reading blogs - it is highly addictive. I have really had to restrict the amount of blogs that I read daily; the list on my side-bar is nowhere near representative of my favourites list! Maybe once a week I dip into the rest of them, and I'm mainly a lurker there! I also get really frustrated when Blogger doesn't honour the layout I spend (too much) time faffing about with. The perfectionist in me stamps its feet!

Hmmm, who to tag next? I think I'll send it winging over to the other side of the planet, to Kirsty at two lime leaves, who always makes me smile!

To end with a photo, this is one for the record...Easter snow!

I've just wasted the best part of an hour trying to make an Easter mosaic, but the site's not having any of it! Grrrr...