2009 - Blogroll review

Since I started this blog in April this year, I've become more interested in what other bloggers have to say and thought I'd take the opportunity to list some of blog posts have caught my attention:

#5 Street Art on 'Oxford Daily Photo':

As the title says, this is a photo taken daily of Oxford and its always good to see pictures that aren't typical of Oxford, like this fantastic picture of the a large mural in Temple Road, I especially like the power drill:

http://oxforddailyphoto.blogspot.com/2009/06/street-art.html

#4:  Birds in the back garden on 'Gullivers Travels':

I am always envious of the pictures Martin takes and aim and often fail to reach his standard.  I particularly like this post, especially the pheasant, which I thought was plastic when I first saw it.

http://martingulliver.blogspot.com/2009/10/birds-in-back-garden.html

#3 Periitricha Cillate on 'Life on an Oxfordshire Lawn'

The sheer amount of work Henry Walloon puts into his extraordinary blog is incredible and the level of research would not go amiss in  an academic paper.

This post shows what life can be found in a puddle in a back garden in England - simply incredible:

http://lifeonanoxfordlawn.blogspot.com/2009/09/microscopic-peritrichia-cillate.html

#2 Vole after my bag in 'About a Brook'

Kate's blog discussing the ups and downs of water voles in Shropshire is the inspiration behind this blog and for the two years or so I've been reading it I have enjoyed many interesting posts.  But my favourite post is a wonderful story of a water vole trying to escape with her bag - an utter joy and I'm most envious

http://staggsbrook.blogspot.com/2009/09/vole-after-my-bag.html

Kate's blog would have been number one, until I read this post:

#1 Vietnam bears on 'Terry Whittaker photo blog':

Terry Whittaker is freelance photographer and I first encountered his blog when searching for water vole blogs on Google during a wet lunch time (Terry's blog is 103, I'm now number 2 and Kate is number 1) and was first drawn to his blog with wonderful photos of water voles taken during a photography course he runs.

But it's this post - which could have been a magazine article - on bear bile which has stuck in my mind.

http://terrywhittakerphoto.blogspot.com/2009/12/vietnam-bears.html

What could have been an emotive post is balanced and certainly changed my mind on bear bile - what I thought was quack medicine, actually contains Ursodeoxycholic acid which is used for treating gallstones.  

In reflection, there have been a myriad of posts that have entertained, interested and educated me and I'd like to thank all blog posters that posted on my blog or who I have stumbled across.

As I start to follow more blogs, like Dr Jeremy Biggs pond blog:

http://thegardenpondblog.org.uk 

and Bretton Birders bird blog: 

http://www.bluebirder.blogspot.com 

I will encounter more fascinating posts in 2010