Happy 3rd Bloggiversary

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Who'd have thunk it, another year of KeepYourPowderDry?

Due to Covid restrictions there was no party this year, so here's a pic from a previous works do - a goats and goblins theme (the accounts department do like their fancy dress). Regular readers will notice that the Saturday boy wasn't invited as his mum wouldn't let him out after the state he'd left the downstairs loo in , after the last works 'do'.


First off there are quite a few people I need to say thank you to: everyone who has visited and read my posts, I still find it bemusing that so many people are interested in my nonsense; also, those of you who have taken the time to write kind words about the blog; a special thank you to all the fellow bloggers who link to this site from their own blogs.

This year has seen KeepYourPowderDry pass an enormous milestone - visitor numbers have just eased past 126,000 hits! Which is really quite staggering when I didn't really expect anyone to read what I'd written. I know numbers don't matter, but there was a soupçon of excitement watching the counter creep ever closer to six figures.

Possibly the most flattering thing to happen this year was on my visit to Naseby, seeing someone near Sulby hedges with a printout of my 'directions' for the battlefield.

A strange year for everyone, writing this blog has helped keep me sane through lockdown; and I have had some really nice messages suggesting that it is doing the same for readers too. 

The other flipside of not being able to go out is that I have been thinking about what to do when the world begins to resemble something a little more normal: I now have quite a few grand days out planned for the  ECWtravelogue. The few occasions when I have been able to get out have been very memorable, even more so because I have always seemed to be blessed with blue sky and sunshine.

This year has seen Google force bloggers into using the new Blogger UI. New Blogger is still very much a work in process, and not necessarily an improvement I have to say; it has done strange things to the  formatting of some older posts, and regularly loses readers comments for a number of days before it allows me to see them (sadly comments have to be moderated to stop unwanted spam).

Big hitting posts this year have been my painting guides - the coat colours series seems to have been linked to from parts of the internet that I didn't know existed.  It would also appear that a number of schools have set local history lockdown projects judging by the numbers of hits on battlefield ECWTravelogue posts - Lansdowne, and Adwalton in particular. Regular readers will be pleased to hear that the search term "podiatrist Tyldesley" is still generating visits to the blog.

Almost as amusing is the fact that my post about the Yate's cornets at Bromesberrow Church is still listed as the church's website on the United Benefice of Leadon Vale website (technical church term for a group of churches in the area, and also St Mary's Dymock website, another church in the Benefice).

Still not got around to completing the rules review posts that I have previously mentioned, although the fact that 'rules' appears in a title is a step forward.

I've tried to make the blog work a bit more like a traditional website by my fancy use of labels. Hope it works. I did consider converting the blog into a website but that would have involved lots of cash - far too much to be sustainable or justifiable.

The blog now has some affiliate links as well as running (hopefully not too obtrusive) adverts. If you are able to, why not consider making your next paint or modelling supplies order through one of the affiliate links? On the subject of adverts if you see anything inappropriate being advertised please let me know and I'll adjust the Google Ads settings - hopefully nothing too untoward will turn up as I have denied political and news ads. Special thanks to those of you who have supported the blog through Buy Me A Coffee - your generosity has paid for the domain registration for the coming year. 

Last but not least thanks to #1 son who uses his academic log in to download papers and manuscripts for me, and most importantly to S for continuing to tolerate "whilst we are here can we just visit...".

If you enjoyed reading this, or any of the other posts, please consider supporting the blog. 
Thanks.

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