A room with 31,615 views (OWW 1 year today)

One year ago today I began my 'One Woman's World' (OWW) blog with my first post 'Drought Breaker'. Same time, a year later, we need rain again. The sky, grey and heavy, at intervals clear, seems undecided as to whether or not to drop its rain, as if it's not sure we deserve rain or not. We're hosting a big family reunion the day after tomorrow so I'm hoping the sky either hurries up or holds on.

But that first post was not only about rain. Beginning the blog was also breaking my own drought as a writer by committing to the idea of being a writer as my main pursuit. It took me a long time to decide this over politics and academia for which I am trained. But having made the career-change commitment, helped along by the blog, which has buoyed me up in moments of doubt and helped to persuade me that I am a writer, I feel just about certain it is the right path for me.

 Almost every post has been sent out to you from the snug little study that has featured a couple of times on the blog in the flesh, but has been there in spirit behind every post. Although I often pen my poems and thoughts elsewhere, all blog roads lead back to this room from where they are tidied and transported to you, all 30+ thousand of my viewers out there - or ten VERY keen viewers. Whichever you are, it is more, much more than I had a year ago. This photo just taken is the south end of my study, the desk, window and slim door at the north end. It is the hub of this one woman's world, custom built and made by me. And as chaotic as it is, it is me to a tee (somewhere between a Chelsea Handler and Janet Frame character, perhaps, with last year's New York calendar bought at the NY library and used again for this year; a patriotic plastic mini boomerang, a sketch of Dickens' Old Curiosity Shop, home-made cards from the kids, and plenty of dust).

Of course, as all bloggers know, the first rush of blog bombast tends to wane, and I am no different here. From posting almost every day last April, May and June, some days more than once, this year I am down to twice a week. I hope to improve this rate, and hope is a fine thing. But the writing for publication is keeping me much busier this year than it did last, and taking WAY more time than I could ever have anticipated. All that refining in the re-drafts, that crucial 15%, is one of the more agonising and painstaking processes there has to be - surely. Still, as an apprentice I am glad to have worked my way past believing those wild and exciting first drafts are an end in themselves, to knowing they are a process akin to 'brainstorming' from where the work really starts. Nobody said it would be easy. But the blog helps.

So thank you dear viewers, and here's to another year of OWW: of the sea and the seasons, of Courage and Capsibums (one of my favourite home photos and fun posts), of flowers versus fists and a cat without tail, and all sorts of new stuff that I couldn't predict if I tried and wouldn't predict if I could. It's more fun not knowing. As the new year's card given to me by my number one follower (who I follow in turn) says: 'And now let us welcome the new year, full of things that have never been'. Let's.

Sacha