1. Can you tell us a little about yourself and your blog?
My name is Sylvia Kirkwood, I am retired and live in Seattle, Washington. I was born and raised in Texas. I have four grown children. I have worked as a teacher, was involved in little theater for a number of years. Until I retired nine years ago, I was the assistant to the president of a silicon wafer manufacturing plant. I have been fortunate to be able to travel and have lived in Germany, Spain, Mexico and have visited Italy, France, Greece and Switzerland.
2. Are you a full time blogger? How did you get into blogging and why?
I became interested in blogging after retiring as I found a need to have something to be involved in, something that I enjoyed. I started the blog without any ideas of just what I wanted to blog about, but then my son gave me a camera one day and suggested I try photography. Blogging and photography was the beginning a whole new phase in my life and I loved that it offered me the opportunity to be creative, to be involved and learn more about other people all over the world and to be able to share the beauty of my world with others through photography.
3. If someone was interested in blogging, what would be a few things you would suggest?
For those interested in blogging I would suggest focusing on an area that is important to you, that inspires you, something that you would love to share with others. Learn as much as you can about the most effective way to display/share whatever is important to you. Visit other blogs and do comment because it is from those comments that we not only encourage people, but can share our thoughts and feelings. Comments are a wonderful way to show our appreciation for others efforts, just as we hope others will do for us.
4. How do you build a community around a blog and social media?
This is also the very best way to build a community around your blog. Reaching out to other bloggers by sharing your photos, your writing/poetry etc. and your thoughts are great ways to establish contact with those who have the same interests. Taking part in the various Memes that are available is also a wonderful way to be able to establish communication with those who have similar interests.
5. What are your three favorite blogs to read? What makes those blogs special?
It's very hard to narrow down my favorite blogs to read, but three of them are: Mumbai Daily, Gappa, Nature Digital. The first two are blogs from India and in spite of traveling a good bit during my life, one country/people that I knew very little about was India and once I discovered these blogs I became totally fascinated with the country and its people and I follow/correspond with a number of bloggers in India these days. The third blog is one of a terrific photographer in Greece. And Greece being another one of my favorite places as well as one that I have visited, it was easy for this blog to become a favorite.
6. Which one plugin would you suggest all bloggers to have?
I'm sure everyone has a favorite, but I find Adobe Reader and Flash Player to be helpful.
