“You’re only as young as you feel!”
So true! Last month I became 61 years ‘young’. I was also selected to be part of a group of bloggers over the age of 50 in a series where we celebrate our lives, age, lines, wrinkles, grey hair or whatever. This week is my time to participate on Katherine’s Corner. Katherine’s brilliant series includes interviews of all of the participants that is broken down into 10 weeks. You can read my group’s questions on her site!
Among all of the thousands of Mommy bloggers online today, there is still the largest group of peeps in the country, Baby Boomers! Among those over 50 years old, nearly 80% are always online. Once upon a time, I enjoyed chatting about diapers and play groups. Today, although I am a “Nonna” and change a few diapers now and then, my interests are more varied to include my career, life on an acreage, gardening, cooking, cooking, COOKING, and issues unique to mature women who have a zest for life! Katherine’s series idea gives others a chance to meet others in this demographic to discuss topics that are of mutual interest. And readers don’t have to be fifty to get to know us! For this post, Katherine asked me to share my feelings about blogging in the second half of my life.
My journey into the world of blogging began in the autumn of 2008 when I was strolling around my country acreage and snapping photos of the beauty that surrounded me. I knew than and there that I wanted to begin journaling about the blessings in my life as a result of living on the acreage; leaving city life and living a quiet, rural country life. I immediately went to my computer to start my ‘web’log (original name for ‘blog). A web – log! No more handwriting. Just typing out my thoughts.
Then I started to share some of my recipes that I enjoy. Suddenly, I was receiving comments! What? Someone wanted to respond to me? I never expected THAT! People began to follow me and ask me for more of my family recipes. So my blog expanded from photography in my gardens to include recipes . . . and then my travel adventures.
I’m also a university professor that enjoys writing. And I wanted to expand my writing to include topics that I am passionate about in my personal life. It’s turned out to be so therapeutic!
Katherine asked me for my thoughts about two areas of my blogging journey:
What do I feel is the most important thing to know before I push the publish button?
I absolutely make sure that the blog post’s SEO rating is high (a green dot appears when using WordPress Genesis themes). No matter what platform you are using, read your SEO feedback and correct anything possible until a good SEO rating is accomplished. This will help people who are looking for your content much better than if your SEO is average or worse, is low.
If I could have any meal cooked for me by a well known chef, who would it be and what would be served?
I’d love to be served an authentic Northern Italian meal by Biba Caggiono. Biba is from the same region where my family lives in Italy. I would ask her to prepare me something with some hard-to-find ‘guanciale’ (pork), prosciutto, and Italian pasta! Mmmm! That would be heavenly!
photo: Ron Schwager
Above is the view from my family’s restaurant that my cousin, Mariangela still owns and serves amazing northern Italian food.
And below in this video is a special occasion serving of Guanciale in Balsamic Vinegar (Aceto de Balsamico). In Italy, only a few pieces of chopped guanciale are used in a true carbonara, and in this dish, huge chunks were served. I can’t even imagine how much this would cost in the United States due to how hard it is to find guanciale in our markets.
So head on over to read about more bloggers over 50 on Katherine’s Between The Lines series!
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