“Give without expecting anything in return and it will come back to you a hundredfold” Anon
Featured Blogger: Barb with Pop & Pen... girls day out.
Barbara Taylor is one of those bloggers whose warm smile and kind heart reaches right through the screen to touch you. I met Barb this year through my interactions with lots of bloggers on the DailyPost Challenge organized via WordPress. The first time we connected, I was drawn to both her smile and blog name; Passionate About Pets. When I clicked through to her site, I was immediately drawn to her engaging post on The Dingo; a wild roaming dog. I had never heard of them and then in other posts, I learned more fascinating facts and even a sad story about losing pets, coping with loss, and the rescue of animals in the Queensland floods in Australia.
Barb is generous in connecting with people too and is involved in several social network sites such as Twitter, Facebook,Triond, Buksia, Helium , Linkedin, MyLot and on Flickr where you can connect with her. In this week’s interview, as part of an ongoing series, I am delighted to introduce Barb as our Featured “Get To Know” blogger of the week. Please welcome her and visit her blog too.
Where did you grow up and why do you blog?
I was born in a small village in Scotland, and at the age of 10 my mother re-married and took me away from everything and everyone I had ever known. Mum’s new husband was English and a soldier; so we traveled a lot. The first move was to England and I hated it; especially school, because everyone made jokes of my Scottish accent. I soon learned to lose it and speak with an English accent! At that age, no-one likes to be different … do they?
We weren’t there long before the Army moved us to Germany, then back to England, then Singapore, then back to England again. I went to school in all these places which was quite exciting, except for having to make new friends every time we moved.
Back in the UK, I finished college and got myself a job as a secretary and settled down – that is, until I met my husband! After dating for a while, he suggested we immigrate to Australia as they were crying out for English people to fill certain trades over there. We did! I was 19, he was 21. Boy, what an experience, but I got homesick and a few years later, we returned to the UK. We soon realized we had made a big mistake, but by that time we had a house, a thriving business, three kids and two dogs!
When the kids were older, we moved to Florida where we stayed for three years. We got ripped off, lost everything (long story) and returned to England penniless with our two teenage boys; our daughter had met someone and wouldn’t leave. She still lives there with her two children. We again immigrated to Australia with our two boys and have been here over 20 years now. We love it, but miss our daughter and two grand-kids back in Florida…
I love to write, therefore I blog. I’m not much of a talker and find it easier to express myself with the written word. I like to see things in black and white, written down. Writing is a release for me.
