Friday 1 July 2011

New Blog Layout & Structure...

... and English and German posts all in one blog! Tada!

Wider Layout
Finally, I've managed to change the layout - which was not as difficult as I thought. I wanted it wider with a larger font. We don't become younger and the small font was difficult to read ;-) Another bonus, I can add larger pictures now which I really appreciate. (Although not as large as I'd like and never exactly as wide as the text is! Grrr...)

That's Leo, BTW.

Menu
I wanted some sort of menu with tabs to structure the content. A multi-level menu that uses the tags (labels) would have been a dream. But that's not provided with the blogger layouts. I'm not very html-savvy but I'm not afraid to change html codes as long as it is not too complicated. However, all codes I'd found and tried either didn't work or built menus that didn't cover what I wanted. In the end I've built a 'hand-pulled' menu to which I have added every single post link individually to its category intended. This took forever. This method is quite fault-prone, I hope I can deal with it in the future.

All posts are listed now in their appropriate categories. If a post is provided in German too, this is mentioned there.

Part of a gorgeous menu ;-)

English & German
Unfortunately I cannot conceal that I'm not a native English speaker ;-) Even so I always wanted an English blog, simply because I love this language and because I want to reach a broader audience. In addition, a substantial part of my knowledge is of English origin. When it comes to something about gardening e.g., I often don't even know the German terms!! (Although sometimes there simply is no German term because it doesn't exist here!)

Then again, reading through blogs written by native English or Americans painfully reveals that I never ever will be able to write in the casual, witty style that I so much adore. Furthermore, I'm living in Germany and I love a lot about my country (although I'm most often criticising it).

To overcome this balancing act I originally started two blogs. This one in English and a mirrored one in German. But that was not always fun. I often felt impelled to translate the posts immediately which then resulted in either tense English or tense German translations. So I gave up the German blog.

I've now incorporated all the existing German posts into this blog. And I will go on writing in English or in German or in both the languages down to my whim. After all, a blog should bring some fun, shouldn't it?

Conversation between a small German rocking horse and a large English one :)

Have a nice day!!

2 comments:

HiLLjO said...

I'm glad the english blog is back. I do enjoy reading about how well you feed your animals.

Molly said...

Thank you!! :-) There will be news about Leo this week...
Have a nice Sunday,
Molly