The Toddler

The first picture ever
in my first blog

Today my main blog SusuPetal celebrates the honourable age of a toddler, 2 years! That’s not a long time, although it absurdly sometimes feels like an eternity.
It’s quite unbelievable that for three years ago I didn’t even know the existence of blogs. In fact, I spent very little time in the net.
Yes, I know, it’s hard to believe…

I started my blog to keep up with writing. Before my blog I’d spent almost six years –due to various reasons- without writing. I had a need to write, just didn’t have the means. I’d seldom fantasized myself writing a book, because I had difficulties with longer texts. I just didn’t have the patience to write one story for a long time. I had to get rid of the text as soon as possible.
I knew, and know, that short stories are my thing. Very short stories.

And when I found blogs, I knew I had found my way, because like all writers, I also wanted readers. If that wouldn’t be so, you might as well put your writings into a cupboard.

When I started publishing my very short stories in my blog, I wanted to illustrate the stories as well. I didn’t want to use other people’s pictures, didn’t want to mess with rights of this and that, so I had no other possibility than to start to draw myself. I had only Paint in my computer, so I opened it and started to draw, having never before drawn anything with a computer. Having actually never drawn much at all…

Nothing is impossible, I figured, and I’ve noticed that it is sometimes true.

After having written very short stories for some time, I decided to put up another blog for photos, a blog with fewer words. . I’d acquired a digital camera, but didn’t take much photos, just occasional shots now and then. After starting my second blog SusuPetal –kuva ja sana (SusuPetal –picture and word) I began to have my camera always with me. Photos gave me a holiday from words, which I sometimes needed, being occasionally fed up, and tired of words.

Toying with Paint and digital photos made me want to learn more about picture making and I loaded some free programs from the net (Pixia, Picasa) and started to manipulate my pics. This proved to be very addictive and very satisfying also.

Somewhere along the manipulating, I started my third blog SusuPetal –RunoSaari (SusuPetal –the Poem Island) where I publish my poems for children.

Blogging is a global thing, and when I found my way through some Finnish bloggers to bloggers from other countries, I was struck by the urge of writing in English. Therefore, I started my fourth blog, the one you are reading just now. If you got this far….

And when you start, why stop? The fifth blog was in Swedish.

(I’m not talking now anything about my homepages, got to spare you)

And maybe you already know about this….

Really, two years ago I had no idea of where this addiction could lead to! I’ve found the possibility to write, to take photos, to draw and manipulate photos and while doing all that, I’ve had the luck in getting to know a lot of wonderful people. Other bloggers, their posts, their comments, are the thing that keeps me going. Therefore, I’d like to thank you all and say cheers!