If this blog is to become useful, not only as a current document but also as a record of what life was like in 2019 in Allendale, it will need more contributors than just one perspective.
Send in a story, a piece, to the editor, about your local group’s activity on a particular day, and he will do his best to incorporate the information into the blog entry for that date. Even better, send in a photograph, which will probably go through a ‘sketch’ transformation, so that when the blog is transformed into a ‘blook’, it will be that much less expensive to print. If the photograph is more specifically a photographer’s pride and joy (as for example specific wildlife shots), and that sensibility is lost in the sketchifying process, then a simple Black & White transposition, with perhaps heightened contrast, may be more felicitous.
Some Editorial Concepts by which this diary is maintained:
The ‘sketchifying’ of photographs has a variety of purposes in mind: increased anonymity/universality while maintaining the uniqueness of the pictures of Allendale; decreased expense when the eventual blook is printed, as compared with colour photographs; enhanced ‘dreaminess’ or ‘timelessness’ might be conveyed by the sketching protocol, ie, more of a sense of ‘story’ as developed by people living the anecdote or taking care of the organisation in question; no piece is complete without at least one photograph; a book including such sketches, if legible enough, is unique in and of itself, and is part of the original editorial vision.
Ideally, pieces published in words and pictures will convey a sense of understanding of a variety of viewpoints (there are always different perspectives and perceptions, even in a small village!), but sometimes those viewpoints are best served in the comments section under each piece.
Politeness prevails throughout the diary, according to the editor’s discretion, but good humour is always desirable.
This diary is a continuing work-in-progress, and as such, these editorial concepts may be revisited from time to time throughout the year.
Editing ex post facto: It may not be obvious, but some significant editing ‘after the fact’ occurs in nearly every piece. The basic original entry goes out by email to all subscribers, but inevitably there are revisions, editing, corrections even, that are required for when the diary becomes a ‘book of the blog’. So this editing exercise is ongoing, thanks to sharp-eyed readers, the unending chagrin of the editor, and sometimes the requirements of the image, for example. Once the date has been secured, and the entry is published, all editing is possible, within that date context.