Flower Friday: new shoots

As is often the case with me, the idea was good, the execution a little slapdash. It's a damp, grey day today, so an outdoor blip was not on the cards. Instead I went out briefly and collected props; it's surprising how many blooms there are on 1 January, and I even encountered a couple of bees. It's my hope that this spring will see new green shoots in blipland.

There have been some brilliant posts today about people's blip experiences. It's been great reading them; I soon ran out of hearts, but special mention to grace, freespiral, and folkie for the theme tune.

I first came across blipfoto because a colleague at the OU tweeted his blips. On 4 January 2012, I stepped out of the front door and snapped the first thing I saw. Little did I know ... since then I've gone through the obsession stage, had my eyes opened to beauty I'd never noticed before, bought three new cameras and lots of new software and books, been on two photography courses and a creative coding course, run a photo competition, taken photos of some pretty unlikely subjects, made my own calendars every year, learned so much about so many topics, and met blippers from the US, France, and the UK. I've been using the web since it was first invented, and I have never come across a friendly, troll-free community like this. It's a corner of sanity and friendship in an increasingly difficult world.

I think you'd have to have been living under a rock not to know by now that Blipfoto needs our help to survive, and the window of opportunity is closing fast. I find it hard to contemplate a life where I don't visit Blipfoto every day, whether I post a blip myself or not. I've already pledged twice, and I would urge you to give whatever you can -- whether by buying shares or simply donating -- and encourage others to do so. Let's also do our bit by recruiting new blippers as the new year starts. How brilliant it would be if Blipfoto proved the doubters and pessimists wrong and became the first community-owned social media site. It always was one of a kind, and this would continue that tradition.