Blogging in the Countryside

jones & jones white dress

I love where I live. Even if I do moan every couple of days about the weather (well, I’m British!) and how much I’d love to live in America, just because, I do still love my little slice of North Yorkshire. It’s beautiful, quiet, the roads aren’t usually too busy, and it’s where I grew up and returned to, even after a stint at university in Newcastle and working in Durham. But being a blogger in North Yorkshire isn’t always ideal, and here’s why:

1. Events are oh-so far away

I wouldn’t say I get a massive amount of invitations, but I do have to turn down a good few of them on a weekly basis. It’s not because I have a full time job (although that does contribute to it), it’s because the majority of these events are down in London, a good 250+ miles (and a few terrible roads!) away. The one trip I’ve taken to London for blogging was a proper day out, leaving early in the morning, arriving home late at night and being exhausted afterwards, as well as being, really, quite expensive in travel costs (although it was super fun!). To be fair, there have been a few invitations to local events too such as the Oxfam day in Leeds and the FABB blogger event, also in Leeds, a couple of years ago. Even so, Leeds is still a day out for me from where we live, considering that we really are quite in the middle of nowhere with few connecting roads and train stations a half an hour journey away. What bothers me a little though is that often these invitations are sent without much of a thought that some of us may not live close enough to “pop in” on our lunch breaks, or the address is simply a building and street name with the assumption that everyone will know these are in London.

2. Other bloggers are oh-so far away

Fortunately this is a little less of an issue now as more bloggers are popping up in my area, yay, including Caroline, Rachel and Lauranne. Unfortunately, it’s still not quite the same as we’re not within the same city and can’t just hop on a tube to see each other. It’s sometimes a bit sad to see bloggers you’ve connected with online being able to meet up with each other, but not being able to get involved. Fortunately, I’m a bit of an introvert so meeting other people is a bit stressful and I’d probably panic over it anyway! It would be nice to have someone I could meet up with often to force into doing photo-taking swaps and not have to enlist friends, sisters, parents and Ben to do it unwillingly!

new look daisy dress

3. No cool “cityscape” outfit posts

Bit of an odd one, but outfit posts from personal style and fashion bloggers in the city always look so cool! Is that just me?! With the streets blurred in the background (although I’m also worried when I see them in the middle of the road though :/), on rooftops, on balconies overlooking a cityscape or in super trendy apartments. The city may not be for me, but sometimes I feel like it would be awesome to have backgrounds like that.

4. Not an unusual sight

I’m not definite on this one, but I’m pretty sure that if you’re in a city, especially the capital, it’s not too unusual to see bloggers taking photos of their outfits “in the wild”. Even if other people don’t know they’re bloggers, it doesn’t look strange to see people having their photos taken with the sights. But where I live, if you’re having more than one photo taken, people will stop and stare. It’s assumed you’re either taking a photo of a pretty view, or a photo of someone with the pretty view, and that’s that. Fashion blogging is mostly unheard of. In fact, one of my Brownies spotted me having blog photos taken and asked if I was a model! While people in cities might put their heads down and walk by if they see this happening (just like how apparently you’re not supposed to talk to strangers on the tube – see how naive I am?!), country folk will stop and ask, then ask some more when they don’t understand, then ask again, and then give their judgement on it. I’ve always got a back up of: “It’s a project from uni” – easier than explaining why I’d bother to share my outfits with strangers who couldn’t really care less.

I didn’t want you to think it was all doom and gloom living up here in the North though – this post is just a bit of fun after all! But I thought I’d share some of the positives of my little piece of countryside too, just so I don’t seem like a miserable old miser moaning about everything (even if that actually is all I do…!):

moorland outfit photos

1. Beautiful backdrops

So I may not have a city behind me in the vast majority of my outfit posts, but I do have beautiful countryside just a short walk away. Okay, so my last house was better for this since it really was just fields on either side, but I just need to cross the road or jump in the car for about a minute to find a beautiful backdrop here.

2. Standing in the road

simplicity 2444 dress

This is countering another point above – how do you stand in a city road with traffic on either side and not get run over? Is it even legal to do that?! I can (quite) easily walk into the middle of a road round me, as they’re mostly country lanes, and not have to worry about being run over. Well, that’s apart from tractors and the random shooting party that passed me in the shoot above – I pretended I was taking pictures of the view, don’t worry (in heels…in the snow…).

3. Less people to stare

Even if people don’t quite understand why someone’s taking seventy million photos of someone in pretty dresses and heels in a field, at least there aren’t that many of them around! The lane I used to live on was virtually invisible from the houses on it thanks to trees and hedges, and it had a total of about 4 cars driving on it every day (though my neighbour did say he’d counted 10 during “rush hour” – crazy!). It’s easy enough to find fields and views where there isn’t a single person around to stop and look at what you’re doing or to get in the background of your photos. I can’t say the same for sheep and cows though…

4. Not feeling obliged to attend every event

While I’d like to be able to attend more events, as I said, I’m an introvert, so I’d probably end up turning down just as many events as I do now! It’s always nice to have the option though.

Anyone else blogging in the countryside like me? What are your thoughts on it?

PS: How’d you like the throwback pictures in this post?! Some of these go right back to 2011, and the blog itself, in case some of you haven’t been around long, goes all the way back to February 2010 – quite ancient I’d say in blogging terms, considering the amount of blogs I’ve seen just today professing how 18 months and 2 years has been a long time to be around and saying blogging has changed during that time (my response to that would be much along the lines of Amber’s, but that’s a post for a different day altogether!).

6 Comments

  1. July 3, 2015 / 5:52 pm

    Ah, I was about to comment on living in the countryside, then saw your link and the end – thank you! (And honestly – lately I keep seeing posts from people saying things like, “Well, I’ve been blogging for THREE WHOLE MONTHS now, so I thought it was way past time for me to do an advice post!” and I can’t help but feel that if they think three months is a long time, I must be some kind of blog dinosaur!)

    Anyway, back on topic, I also live in the countryside, and honestly, because I’m so antisocial, I’m actually really grateful for the fact that it gives me a built-in excuse not to go to events etc – at least this way I can just be all, “Oh, I’d LOVE to, but I just can’t!” 😉 I do think there are a lot better photo opportunities in cities, though – we have some nice scenery where we are, but I’d have to plough through fields to get to it (not great in heels), so most of the time I just have to stick to the country roads, which I do like, but I feel quite jealous of bloggers who have lots of interesting backdrops right on their doorsteps. I find that people do still stop and stare in cities, though – I’ve even had people stop and stare when I’ve been taking photos in front of the castle at the Magic Kingdom (and not even blog photos, just regular tourist ones!) which is honestly amazing to me – it’s like they’ve never seen a camera, before. Oh, and in San Francisco, people all gathered round one of the biggest tourist attractions in the city to watch Terry take my photo, and wonder aloud if I was someone famous, and what they might have seen me in – people are strange!

    • Sian Thomas
      Author
      July 7, 2015 / 3:54 pm

      Definitely agree with you on the event one – it’s definitely a plus to have a ready made excuse of being so far away, but it’s always nice to get the invitation!
      Haha that’s brilliant that people did that in Magic Kingdom right in front of the castle! Seriously, that must be one of the most photographed places, but yet as soon as a blogger is in front of it, it’s like people just know 😀

  2. July 4, 2015 / 6:00 am

    I live in Somerset so can totally relate to this! When I do go up to London I always find it a bit overwhelming and can’t wait to get back to the countryside. I lived in Yorkshire for a few years when I was growing up, it’s a gorgeous area x

    • Sian Thomas
      Author
      July 7, 2015 / 3:57 pm

      I definitely find it overwhelming travelling to cities too (especially London, cannot deal with the tube!), but it does make it worth it coming back home 🙂

  3. louise
    July 6, 2015 / 3:47 pm

    I grew up in the countryside and left it for the big city (Edinburgh from Lancashire!) but it’s so lovely and humbling to go home and visit my parents every now and then, it’s so much quieter for a start!

    Louise x

    • Sian Thomas
      Author
      July 7, 2015 / 4:02 pm

      I know what you mean about travelling home to the countryside after being in the city – when I was at uni, I always looked forward to my quiet weekends at home!

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