Market Finds of the Week

Okay so I seem to have lost my blogging mojo lately.  I don't know what my deal is but I can't get the motivation to write about anything lately.  When I first started this blog, I couldn't wait to write about all sorts of things.  Now, I can't get the motivation to sit down and write.  It's  not like nothing has been going on.  In fact, I've been crazy busy.  I guess when you're busy, you're just too exhausted to write about the day's goings on when you get done with them.  Hopefully, this is just a passing phase.

The only thing I really want to write about these days is what I get at the farmer's market, which is a shame because apparently no one else is interested at all in reading about it.  Oh well.  It makes me happy so I'm going to do another farmer's market post today.

First of all, Ted got his hot cross buns!  Don't they look awesome?  I had to smell them all the way home so I couldn't resist just having one bite just to taste.  They really are super scrumptious.  Ted immediately snarfed three of them!

Check out these flowers.  I think they're called Delphinium (?).  Anyway, I call them by their other name, "pretty blue flowers" and I couldn't resist them.

I found some even better eggs than last week.  These are from free-range chickens who are also eat grass and bugs in addition to their feed.  This makes the eggs more nutritious and healthy.  You can't really tell in the picture but the yolks are seriously orange.  This is how egg yolks are supposed to look, but we have gotten used to the pale yellow color which indicates lower nutrient levels.  Also, if you look at the egg in the middle, it is slightly green.  The lady told me that this egg came from a particular type of chicken that lays green, blue, and sometimes rose-colored eggs.  Cool.  I made scrambled eggs with them when I got home and eating them was a whole new eggsperience!  (Sorry---couldn't resist.)  They are much eggier and sturdier than other eggs. 

I won't bore you with all the veggies and other things I got today.  I did get some goat meat to try.  I'm curious to see what that's like.  Anyway, I just seem to be excited about food lately.  Who knows why?  Now I really know what Julia Child meant when she said that shopping for food is more thrilling than shopping for a dress!

An Amatuer Blogger's Blogpost about Blogging

Why do I like blogging so much?  I don't really know.  Less than 2 months ago, I started my first blog.  Before that, I had no idea this whole blogosphere existed.  I mean, I'd heard of blogs but I didn't really have anything to do with them other than reading a few friends' posts on their blogs.

Now, I'm a total addict!  Not only do I love maintaining my own blog, I love reading everybody else's!  It must be filling a need people have to share their experience with others.  We used to have more time to sit around and chat, I guess.  (I feel like I used to anyway.)  But now, we've gotten so busy we don't really have a chance to swap ideas and get each other's opinions on stuff.  Maybe also, we don't listen to each other in the real world.  In the blogosphere you feel like someone is going to read your take on things.  Oh well, I could speculate all day.  I have no idea why blogging makes me so happy but it does.

"Musings" is kind of my practice blog.  I try to add new things and make changes as I make my way through books like "Problogger" and "Blogging for Dummies".  (I also follow the Problogger blog for helpful tips.)  I've learned things like "content is king!" and "design is queen!".  I recently bought a domain for this blog (lynmusings.com), but haven't pointed my blogger address to it yet.  I'm kind of afraid people may not be able to find it easily any more.  Oh well, I suppose I should try it and see what happens.  Also, I learned that when you register a domain name, you must include the "www" if you want it.  I thought I was buying "www.lynmusings.com", but if you type that, it says it doesn't exist.  I thought it would add it automatically.  Silly me!  Rookie mistake, I suppose.  (That's why I have a practice blog!)  Luckily, it only costs about $10 per year to buy a domain.  I see it as a $10 lesson in how not to do it.

As far as design, I haven't really done anything about it.  Apparently, a bad design (or no design) can put off potential readers.  I found a helpful post on the subject.  (Click here to see it.)  When I'm ready to deal with design, I'll take her advice.  (BTW - I think her design is super cute!)

I recently added Sitemeter to my blog and I LOVE it!  There is a free version that I am using and I find it works great.  It's really fun to see where people who view your blogs are.  I've had hits from people in Germany, France, England, South Africa, India, and New Zealand.  I can't tell you how happy this makes me!

I'm still trying new things.  I just found out about the following:

• 103bees.com  - apparently, this site allows you to see what questions your readers are asking search engines in order to get to your site.  It also lets you see how people arrive at your site.  The only thing is it's not free.  (Booo.)  But there is a free trial so you can see how it works.  I might try it out.  I'll let you know what I think of it.
• Digg.com & Delicious.com - Both of these site are "social bookmarking sites".   They say that sites like these can send lots of visitors to your blog based on the titles of your posts.  (Again, I've not tried it yet myself, but I'll keep you posted.) 

Has anybody out there tried these already and do you have any other advice for a rookie blogger?