Tag Archives: iPhone

190, 7408, 171, 277, 40, snail

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On June 27th 2012 I typed up my 190th blog post. It was a quick affair, just something to show off some snaps I had taken on holiday.

A couple of days after I published it, my iPhone began binging and bonging alerting me to a quick succession of messages that had been sent my way via WordPress. They were comments. Lots and lots of comments.

Now, for some of you this barrage of likes and what-not from fellow writers is nothing new but I am still only in the 40-50 hits a day range and have a small, to say the least, number of regular followers.

As I kept checking the App on my phone the number of viewings rose rapidly, it shot past 115 (my past highest daily hit rate) and then continued past 500. By the end of the day it had reached 797. It was only then, when I checked my email that I realised had been “Freshly Pressed“.

For those of you who don’t know, Freshly Pressed is a small number of blog posts selected daily by WordPress as their choice of the best posts of that day. When you think about how many people blog daily the chance of you getting picked is slim but when it does happen is it amazing. For those of you who have been “pressed” before you will know the audience that your work reaches suddenly hits dizzy heights and it can be quite a shock. Suddenly people are actually reading your stuff. And commenting. And liking it.

I admit, the pictures that I took are rather lovely and that I was very lucky (or unlucky given the time of day they were taken) to have been able to capture the images but I never expected such a recognition.

In the week that followed my pressing, the Little Muddy Boots blog received 7408 page views, 171 new comments, 277 likes and picked up over 40 new followers.

I found the level of attention quite daunting at times, the subject matter is quite controversial and provoked many comments both negative and positive. The point of the post was not an environmental, ecological or political one, it was photographic. . I didn’t want to enter any arguments particularly as I know next to nothing about turbines and didn’t want to look like an idiot. I kept re-iterating to people, as politely as possible (one commenter was kind enough to comment on not just my photographs but also my politeness!), that I had put the pictures up because I found them so beautiful rather than because I was for (or against) wind power. It seems, to some, you are unable to view something for its beauty without knowing all the facts. But that is the beauty of the freedom of speech. I would like to thank each and every person who took the time to comment and like the post, it really meant a lot to me and made the three 4am starts totally worth it.

The thing is now, how can I keep my 40 new readers (and my oldies of course) happy? How do I get pressed again and do I want to be pressed again?. I am certain that post 191 won’t do it (no one really likes a load of statistics do they?) but what about post 192? One thing I do know is that I won’t be making a habit of getting up at 4 am to hunt down suitable subject material.

So for now, here is a picture of Mr Snail that I took a few weeks ago during more sociable hours who lost out on a front page position to three, tall wind turbines. He might not have the hits of the turbines or the controversial aspect but I think he is rather lovely. Enjoy your 15 minutes my slippery friend.

Girls Night and Guacamole

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Can you remember a time without text messaging, smart phones, Facebook and Twitter? Does it make you wonder how the human race ever communicated with each other?

I often wonder how I would manage if someone made off with my phone. How would I contact people, I don’t know their numbers as they are all stored in that little tiny piece of technology that accompanies me wherever I go. How would I check my email, view my “friends” on Facebook, Tweet some useless anecdote. Would I have to revert to logging my slow laptop on every time I wanted to social network or (shock horror) would I actually have to pick up the phone and talk. My mum despairs of it, she thinks the art of conversation is dead  but my mother-in-law freely admits that she would be lost without her iPhone.

I get loads of text everyday, some are just a few words, others run in to chapter and verse of that days events, sometimes I get texts that really do put a smile on my face. This is one I got earlier in the week:-

“Hello Mrs. We are having a mini girls night round at yours on Thursday, you, me and Lesley. We’ll bring the dinner, pud and wine. See you at 7.30 ish, Jules”

It was not only the brilliant idea, free food and wine and the knowledge these two friends were coming round to cheer me up a bit that was so great about the text. It was the fact that it didn’t give me time to think of a reason why it shouldn’t happen. There was no “I have to be up early”, “let me check my diary” or “can  I call you back?” like there may have been if the idea had been delivered over the phone or in person. I just simply typed back “excellent idea, can’t wait”. I was committed!

As Jules and Lesley were bringing the food I decide that I had to make  an effort with dressing the table. The high chair was stashed in the kitchen, the table polished and scraped of its sticky finger marks and laid out with my best Kath Kidston crockery and napkins. I dusted down my crystal wine glasses and put tall fluted glasses in the freezer for the Prosecco. I even bought candles.

We enjoyed our Prosecco while nibbling on nachos and dips before sitting down to the main course of slow cooked chilli beef and fluffy white rice. As full as we were we still managed to squeeze down a couple of deliciously rich profiteroles before admitting defeat and crashing in the living room with our wine.

It was a great night and while we wished each other a good night via Facebook after we had parted company I do know one thing – the art of conversation is most certainly not dead.

Here’s to the next girls night in (or out) – I will cook next time.

Guacamole

The recipe below is for a delicious guacamole that I made for a recent get together over at Jules’ house. She has been badgering me for the recipe so here it is. It is based on the Lemony Guacamole recipe from River Cottage Veg Everyday by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

  • ½ a red chilli, de-seeded and very finely chopped
  • Juice of a lemon
  • Half a clove of garlic, very fines chopped (or passed through a garlic press)
  • 2 large, very ripe avocados
  • 1 tablespoon of olive oil
  • Salt and pepper to season
Simply peel and de-stone the avocados and mash with a fork. Stir in the garlic and chilli followed by the oil. Add the lemon juice a bit at a time until you are happy with the zesty flavour of it. Season to your liking with salt and pepper. Serve with nachos and soured cream.