Blogging creates an actual community

Nectarines on a pressed glass cake plate
acrylic on canvas
8 x 8 inches
Barbara Muir © 2009
(new photo)

You read a lot of opinions on blogging and what
the blog world can and can't do. I am always
amazed at what it does do. The case of Julie who
wrote about Julia Child is only one example.
But real friendships are created through cyberspace.
I know it. I have met people blogging who I know
I would be delighted to meet in person, and who
would like to meet me, and many who I count as
real life friends.

This summer when we were at our schoolhouse
in Pugwash, Nova Scotia we were treated to a day of
fun with our friends Flora Doehler and Larry Knox who
moved to Bear River, Nova Scotia from Toronto, Ontario
a couple of years ago.

Flora loved a blog written by our friend, Greg
Smiley who owns The Chatterbox Café in
Pugwash with his wife, the phenomenal painter
and writer, Norene. And Greg followed Flora's
blog about how the work on the big 100 plus year-old
farmhouse she and Larry are renovating was going.
When we took Flora and Larry to the Chatterbox for
lunch, a heartwarming meeting of two bloggers took
place. Greg and Flora talked for about an hour, and
they had so much to talk about. Why? Because they
were already friends from the blog world.

Flora marvelled at Norene's art which graces
the walls of the café, and Greg met Larry, who he'd
seen frequently, whenever he had time to go to
Flora's blog, in both pictures and videos of the
progress on the house.

Me, Flora Doehler and Greg Smiley at
the Chatterbox Café in Pugwash, Nova Scotia in August

In a way blogging is a lot like having a penpal,
the difference being immediacy. Plus with Skype
and email, blogging opens the door to the
possibility of truly great friendships.

My painting tonight is of Ontario nectarines on
a pressed glass cake plate. Nectarines here are small,
and quite dark red like plums, but perfect juicy
peach coloured inside and absolutely delicious.

Have an enjoying-the-fruits-of-your-labour day.