To Quote Mark Twain:

"The reports of my death, have been greatly exaggerated".

I'm sure that must be a cliche amongst bloggers, especially when used in the context of having been away from your blog for a while. However I wanted people to be sure I wasn't disappearing quietly into the night... I would say reassure, but I would guess that most people who end up reading my blog, do so by accident and regard it as a navigational hazard.

I can only hope there are some that regard stumbling onto this site as a "happy accident".

Recently I read another person's blog that suggested that it is this time of year when blogs tend to die off. I don't know if that is statistically true... but I have to agree, you do get that impression. It's a time of year when people go away on holiday, or have other things to do with the better weather. Things become quiet and the temptation to just forget about writing and just move on is strong indeed.

Watching these things happen is a bit like standing at the end of the universe and watching the stars slowly go out one by one:

Or to take an example from popular culture, I guess I feel a little bit like Frodo and Samwise as they chance upon some Wood Elves leaving Middle Earth.

Sam comments that seeing them leave is "kind of sad" but he doesn't know why. I think it is because he knows deep down, a little bit of the magic is leaving his world.

That is how I feel when I read a dormant blog. It is like walking into a derelict or abandoned church; or maybe it is like looking upon a tombstone, monolith... or a monument commemorating something or someone that has been lost forever to memory and time.

I don't wish for that to ever happen to my blog (unless I pull the plug on it like at MSN Spaces), I feel so strongly about this that I'm considering handing the keys over to this place should anything befall me. Maybe it would be a bit freaky if it still bore my name and picture... but the reason for this blog's existence is more important to me than any sense of it being branded in my image.

So serious about this am I, that I even have a shortlist of potential "heirs", people who I would feel honoured to take the helm in my absence (short term or permanent).

That is enough blogging about blogging. I have things to say about politics in the next few days, so expect business as usual very shortly.

God bless

N