Actually, there is no Blue Moon today, and I’ve no tidbits of information regarding that incredible heavenly body, no song, no famous quote.

Because today I’m celebrating something that happens rarely, once in a Blue Moon, so to speak and although it does happen annually, I’ve not celebrated it since 2015.

But firstly, in honour of Becky’s ‘Blue’ Square in July photo challenge, I do have to include something in keeping with my Blue Moon spin, and even if it is only a small, left-aligned, photo, at least I’ve ensured it is square.

I hope you like this photo, it was taken through my telescope.

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So back to what today is all about, and the milestone I’m celebrating . . .

It feels like a (very) long time ago when I sat down and fumbled my way through the process of creating a blog.  I even had to employ the services of one of our daughters just to get started.  I’d never managed a blog previously, never touched the WordPress.com user interface, and had no idea what to do, let alone what it was I wanted, or how to go about achieving it.

But, eventually, I got there and my first post was published on this day back in 2014.  (You can read that sad little contribution here.)  Reading that post yesterday made me laugh because I had no idea how long I was going to be doing this.

Back in 2014, I couldn’t envisage how much I would enjoy blogging.  I thought I would ‘write on a blog’ for a couple of months because, to be perfectly honest, that’s how long I thought our trip around Australia would be.  I still find it extraordinary that we managed to stay on the road for 20 months, and here I am, some three years after our trip finished, and I’m still writing and sharing my ‘ramblings’ on this, my blogs’ fifth anniversary.

That’s right!

And to celebrate this amazing accomplishment, I’ve compiled a few fun facts (and figures).
(As at 2:45 pm yesterday.)

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Fun Fact No. 1
No. of Posts – 726

It’s hard to imagine I’ve had so much to say 🙂

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Fun Fact No. 2
No. of Pages – 83

In some circles, that constitutes a book.

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Fun Fact No. 3
No. of Photo Galleries – 56

Yes, 56 of those 83 pages are photo galleries.

Treasured images captured on our trip around Australia.

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Fun Fact No. 4
No. of Likes – 5,783

I must be doing something right. Right?

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Fun Fact No. 5
No. of Comments – 4,796

Ok, a good majority of those are my replies to your comments.

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Fun Fact No. 6
Number of Followers – 552

Not bad, all things considered.

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Fun Fact No. 7

No. of posts featuring The Moon – 34

And ever increasing with this month being ‘Blue Moon’ month.

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Fun Fact No. 8
No. of Views – 41, 562

Wow!  That’s an average of approx 60 per post.

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Fun Fact No. 9
No. of weeks in a row – 98

That’s the total number of weeks in a row that I share a Photo of the Week.

I’m thinking I should revive this.  Perhaps with “Flower(s) of the Week”.

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Fun Fact No. 10
No. of countries reached – 130

And here is where my blog extended across our big, beautiful planet.

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Here’s a few more figures – just for fun:

32	The number of recipes I’ve shared. And I’ve many more in my worn out book.
25	The number of times I reviewed a Chicken Parmigiana I enjoyed somewhere. I’m thinking I should continue with this.
13	The number of speeches I’ve shared. And as an active Toastmaster, there are many more to come.
5	The number of WordPress Courses I did. Yeah!  Free education on the ‘how to do’ and ‘how to manage’ a blog.
3	The number of WordPress Themes I’ve used. After all, they do say that a change is as good as a holiday.  (Is it time for another?)
1	The number of WordPress Blogs I have. Although I had two, I combined them almost two years ago now.

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Thank you for joining us on our trip around Australia,

and thank you for continuing to follow along on my journey of reflection and self-discovery.

I will continue to share my thoughts and photographs.