I guess with this column I officially join the ranks of internet bloggers. A blog is a web site where you post your thoughts and opinions in writing and share it with the online world. A true blog is interactive so readers can comment on your comments and you develop this kind of interactive community on the web. Blogging started back in the 90’s sometime and now there are hundreds of thousands of blogs on every conceivable topic imaginable.
My new blog is called… what else, River Valley Rambler. I figured since I’ve been writing this column in the River Valley News for longer than I can remember I may as well throw it out on the web as well. The blog will feature all the regular columns written for the paper from now on. In addition I’ll go back and look through some of the past 352 columns and post some of them from time to time, sort of a retro-rambler. I can also post photographs and other content on the site. For example I’ve included a column I wrote last summer after my wife and I became grandparents for the first time and I added a picture of our new granddaughter Ava. It’s worth checking out the blog just to view that photo of Ava, probably the most beautiful baby in the world. Well she is to us.
When you have a column your deadline is whenever the paper is published. So in the case of the River Valley News I come up with a new column every two weeks on average. But with a blog there is no publication date or deadline. You post something new whenever you want. I try to keep each column to about 500 words but blog postings can be any length you want. So for these reasons my blog at rivervalleyrambler.blogspot.com is going to be more than just the biweekly columns. I call it a collection of regular columns published in the River Valley News as well as thoughts, comments, reflections and ramblings about life in the River Valley area of New Brunswick with special emphasis on outdoor recreation and activities. That sounds like a mouthful but what it really means is if something of interest is happening in the area, chances are you’ll be able to read about it in the blog. This is especially true if it has to do with the outdoors and activities like hiking, biking, canoeing, kayaking, skiing and so on. This column has always had a focus on active living and outdoor adventure and the blog will build on that. I hope at some point the web site will be the first place for people to go to find out about outdoor activities happening in the local area.
So far you’ll see postings and photos about skiing, walking and snowmobiling on some of the local trails. Conditions by the way have been fabulous. There’s also a story about an annual ice climbing festival that occurred on a frozen waterfall on Ministers Face on Long Island in the Kenebecasis River. It attracted ice climbers from all over the Maritimes. By the time you read this in the print edition of River Valley News there’ll probably be other postings on the site. You’ll never know exactly what you’ll find there. That’s part of the fun of it. Down the road there will be information about other projects that are in the works that will include video and audio and other content online.
I invite you to check out my new blog and visit as often as you like. I hope you’ll leave comments and suggestions for stories and other content you’d like to see online and in this column. Bookmark the site. It’s easy to find at rivervalleyrambler.blogspot.com.
(Visit rivervalleyrambler.blogspot.com for previous columns and new content about life in the River Valley)
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