It’s Monday, which means most of us probably ask and get asked the “how was your weekend? question a lot.

Short answer: good.

Long answer:

I enjoyed a great weekend in and around Waterloo. It was sunny and warm, which meant I spent most of the weekend outside. I harvested a large colander full of cherry tomatoes from our veggie garden. We shared a meal with friends and saw Canadian musician Danny Michel perform at Bestival (the outdoor festival in Belmont Village). I enjoyed a long walk around Waterloo Park and watched the world go by as I sat on our beach (a small plot of sandy area overlooking the pond, which some people call a lake). I took my car through the car wash and then drove out to Stratford for lunch and shopping with a friend. I bought a ridiculous, amusing, and large octopus Jellycat that I will now consider an art feature / talking piece in our home.

And chores. There are always chores like laundry that get done on weekends. But noone likes to talk about that!

I’m glad I kept White Cabana alive even if I haven’t posted in two years. During this time, I have regularly shared links to old blog posts with friends (mostly for travel ideas). Each time I shared a link, I was able to have a little walk down memory lane, which made me smile.

And smiling is good.

Yesterday, I read through pages of my old blog posts. And you know what?

I really really really like White Cabana.

I have shared some beautiful spaces and objects over the years. I have shared some personal stories, too. I have shared so many travel photos. To my surprise, I still like just about all that I have shared. I was surprised to discover this actually. Even though a lot has changed in two years, there’s plenty that hasn’t.

I still dress in black and white.

I still use this Bentgo lunch box.

I still have an organized pantry in an antique French armoire.

I am still crocheting this blanket. Sigh.

I still would love a black and white striped sofa.

I still love doing the Globe and Mail crossword puzzle on Saturday mornings.

I still get this jumbo calendar each fall.

And I am still looking for the best kitchen garbage set-up. Help?

Reading years worth of my writing was interesting. It was interesting to observe the evolution of my writing and my blog. I clearly remember writing some posts, and I have no memories of others. I guess that’s natural.

Perhaps in two more years, I’ll be reading this blog post, remembering this time when I felt compelled to write.

When I pressed publish on yesterday’s blog post, it felt like when I first published a blog post back in, gosh, when was it? 2008? 2010? Will any read it? Do people still get updates in their inboxes?

And then I thought, cool. I wrote a blog post like in the good ol’ days of blogging. Before SEO. Before content creators and influencers. Before ads, sponsorship, and affiliates. Cool.

And once I published the post, I clicked around the back-end of WordPress. The first thing I noticed was the SEO analysis. According to this new-to-me feature, I did so many things “wrong” in yesterday’s blog post. No focus keyphrase! Missing social markup! What the what?

Things have changed in the blogosphere. I should have known.

I also spent a bit of time looking at the front-end of my blog. Meh. I need to clean it up. I re-learned how to customize widgets (like the things you see on the top/side/bottom of the page around the main middle area). Goodbye blogroll. Goodbye dated announcements. I was unsuccessful at deleting the Google ads. I’m working on it.

I need a fresh place to write.

I need to learn and relearn about this platform. I have lost touch with the “rules” of blogging, and I’m finding that the blogs that I do read are harder to navigate. There’s just so much stuff and pop-ups and banners. Many online spaces are just. so. cluttered.

I like white space. Even if WordPress or Google tell me I’m wrong.