I was flicking back through my blog recently, looking at what changes there had been made in the time since I had first started writing. Not surprising, rather a lot. There had been changes in my thoughts, ideals, photos, recipes and even the way the words tumbled out…but then, in a funny way there hadn’t been many changes either.
The essence of why I had started blogging was still there, and still the same. A year ago, not a dramatic difference, but certainly subtle changes that I know have been for the better.
The one change that had made itself incredibly apparent to me in the last twelve months, is realising just how important community is to me. I always thought it was important, but now I know, it’s really, really important to me. Whether it be as a physical presence or in a digital sense, (both here in blog form or instagram-where I can be frequently found lurking) connecting with like minded people and engaging in conversations keeps me going. It grounds, gives a sense of belonging and quite often adds a hell of a lot more meaning to my day.
With that in mind I wanted to give a little something back. Drawing from people that I’ve discovered because of my blog, and to pay that forward to others (well one anyway) that is a part of this little community.
This bloggy community rocks, and with that I wanted to say, a huge thank you. Really from the bottom of my heart. Thank you to all those who read here, pop in and out and take the time to comment. Without you all, well it definitely wouldn’t be the same.
So to the giveaway part. A little giveaway of stuff I really do like.
My day doesn’t start without a pot full of chai, and if by chance it does begin without it…well it’s not a very good day. I love this tea. Love, love, LOVE it. (one box of original chai tea)
Apiwraps. The plastic wrap alternative that I’m also lovvvving. Anything that decreases on the amount of kitchen plastic being used, is a good thing. A really good thing. (apiwrap pack x3)
Clean and shiny teeth. Yes indeed, teeth are super important and what you brush them with is important too. As these are made out of bamboo, they will slowly break down as compost and not like their plastic cousins, sit around in landfill for a thousand squillion years. (one adult sized toothbrush)
So if you would like me to send you this little packaged giveaway, I would love to hear about your “community”. What the word means to you, an example of it, what you would like from it, a photo, a story or a tumble of words that instinctively fall from your mouth at just the mere mention of the word. Share it here within the comments of this post, or on instagram with the hashtag #cityhippyfarmgirlcommunity by Thursday 20th February, I would love to hear about your community.
cityhippyfarmgirl 
Happy anniversary, Brydie! It’s been great getting to know you! 🙂
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You too Celia, you too.xx
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I love the sourdough community. I know this lovely lady who generously met me at farmers market once to give me some of her starter and has patiently answered one or two emails asking for advice along the way too.
I never knew you could get bamboo toothbrushes, I am going to have to investigate those….
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Jeez, that feels like such a long time ago Richard…you know I don’t think I’ve gone back to those markets since then, (and I think you were one of the first people I ever gave starter to.)
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I was talking to my sisters just today about putting down roots and how I’ve been unwilling to do that because who knows what will be next? Or where I’ll go? I want to change that – embrace my community, the here and now. Get to really know my local farmers and how they feel about things, be more open with people in general, and love the life and people God has blessed me with.
Great pick on giveaway items – unusual and intriguing. 🙂
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Oooh I like unusual and intriguing Sarah 🙂
Good luck with embracing your local community. No…not luck. Enjoy it. Enjoy the process.
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And a big thank you from me too. After reading your blog for such a long time I took your advice and bought myself a beautiful, shiny red Assistent. I love it and the difference it has made to my sourdough baking is incredible! Thank you, Brydie, without you writing about it I would never have known.
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JAAAAAAANNNNNN!!!! Yay! Big double yays!! Thank you for letting me know, I really appreciate it. Like I’ve said 5324 times before, I get nothing for mentioning the product but I do like mentioning the little piece of awesome machinery because it’s awesome and really doesn’t compare to anything else in the kitchen if you are a domestic baker, (especially for sourdough!) Oh, can you see I still get excited about it? 🙂
Did get any extra bits or just the basic model?
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Just the basic model at this stage but Brian was telling me about the new attachment that mills the grain so it would make everything super fresh. His exact words were “and we haven’t even told Brydie about it yet” as I had told him that I had learned about the Assistent through your blog. A big, big thank you again. My partner is super envious as he says it has more power than some of his work tools in the shed.
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hehehe. I’m yet to try any of the sideways attachments still…the grain milling attachment, yep, you know it would be awesome.
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Hi Brydie, congratulations on four years! For me, my online community means connecting with other people who think nothing of baking sourdough and growing vegetables when they could just as easily go the supermarket! This community is incredibly supportive, in a way I could never have imagined before I started blogging.
My real-life community is harder to define…I might leave that one for another time!
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It is tricky isn’t it Jane. I also think it’s a constantly evolving thing, (well for me it is anyway.)
As for blogging community- damn happy you are in it dear lady 🙂
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Thanks for a great four years Brydie, congratulations!
Last year I had surgery. I’m not working at the moment so have no work friends and my family all live intestate. The people who touched me the most were Celia, Lorraine, Charlie and Tania- all bloggy buddies who went to the effort to check up on me personally and make sure I was ok. That’s real community. I wish I could send all of them a prize!
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That’s pretty darn awesome isnt it…and I can verify, they are all rocking ladies. xxx
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Congratulations Brydie on your four fabulous years of blogging! Love reading CHFG. 🙂
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Thank you Margot, that’s really kind of you.
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Happy four years to you Brydie. I have always loved coming to your space, and feel sure we would be friends should we ever meet in person. I don’t spend a lot of time surfing around blogs because I have lots of little people to look after, and a rather fabulous real community in my little town to interact with too. Like minded souls who grow their own food, raise chooks and children, bake bread and make things. Who care a whole lot about the world we will be leaving our children and are consciously raising a generation of greener, creative kids with an inner spark that might just help fix things. I love your hand-selected mix of special things – we have the toothbrushes, I love the chai and I have been wanting to get my hands on some beeswax wraps forever (the ones I tried making at home didn’t turn out the best – more wax needed and a better place to dry them next time I think). xx
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Alison, you make me want to move yesterday to your corner of the world. You are so incredibly lucky to be surrounded by people like that in your every day… Love it. So many people truly yearn for that.
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Happy 4th birthday! I remember being so excited when I discovered your blog. It reminds me of all the beautiful things I miss about my old home and all of the wonderful things I am trying to do in my everyday life. Yes I am a much happier person when I have a sense of belonging and for a long time I couldn’t find it in person (and it was a bit depressing) so reading my favourite blogs and commenting gave me that sense of community. It took time but I did end up finding like minded folks in person – organic farmers, crafters – people living that slowly more meaningful life…when I least expected it too. Community gives me a much more fufilling life.
I have always wanted to try the beeswax. Fingers crossed.
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The Apiwraps:)
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See Zena I think it takes tremendous courage to move somewhere and start from scratch in finding ‘your people’. Especially going from the city to the country. Love that you have found some like minded souls to pepper your day.
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Happy 4 years Brydie! I so love following your thoughts, photos, and family insights…and the blogging community is something I really value too. I’d love the chance to win any of your 3 favourite products here but will suggest you don’t enter me in the give away because we’re packing up our house to move and the sensible part of me knows I don’t need to add to things to pack 😉
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Packing a house is a big job…but Kari what exciting horizons await?? 🙂
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I feel more a part of the blogging community than the community where I live. The blogs I read and the people that write them are the people that I would like to know in real life. Most of the people I meet in real life are not like me and don’t understand the things I like to do and talk about…There may be people like me here but as yet I haven’t been able to find them here in my town.
I am growing food, being frugal and “saving the world” because of blogs I read and learn from. I sometimes think that I *should* become more involved in my real community but I don’t think that I would be too much better off so for now I will stick with the blogging community that I know.
Barb.
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It can be hard can’t it Barb, finding those like minded souls. I think that’s the wonderful thing about the blogging community in that, they there are quite often answers, knowledge and emotion just there at your finger tips and ready to be passed on or taken in. Blog land is pretty unique, or maybe just digital media in general with that connectedness that is so readily available to people now.
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4 Years – a long time, and a beautiful thing that you are still here and devoted 🙂 Community to me is simply belonging. It’s a space, be it virtual, emotional or literal that allows you to expand into yourself, to be supported and to engage and support in return. Community can be hard to find, but amazing to experience – and important to nurture once you find it I think!
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Oh you are a wise woman Becs…yep, you are. xx
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I usually lurk and don’t comment but have to say Congratulations for 4 years blogging (but don’t enter me in the draw)! The blogging community is inspirational and as most other commenters have already said, it’s so good to find people who share the same values. The real life community? We’re farmers so have the most amazing and supportive farming community that I think is pretty unique.
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Love it when lurkers….unlurk. I also love that your farming community is amazing and supportive. Super duper lucky to have that Anne.
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Wow – 4 years! My 6 month blogging anniversary is at the end of the month – I hope I still have interesting things to share in 3 1/2 more years!
While I live in a small town that has a strong sense of community (once you take away the thousands of college students), I am introverted and tend to keep to myself (that is an understatement), so I do not feel like an active member in my community. That is by my doing. I find it difficult to connect with people that do not follow the same sort of morals, ethics, lifestyle that I do. Food is a very important topic for me – where it comes from, how it was grown, etc – and so it is hard to really connect with someone who doesn’t think twice about buying a burger at a fast food joint.
I have really enjoyed blogging because I can pick my “friends”. And I think that I, like many new bloggers, have been amazed at the sense of community that can come from a computer! People that do not “get” blogging don’t understand that blogging has so much more depth than Facebook. A blogger is sharing part of themself with you and opening up a dialogue for discussion. And I have received wonderful support from people that I don’t even know, but that have been through a similar experience and are happy to help a fellow blogger.
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It does have so much more depth to it than facebook doesn’t it. So, so much more….Actually Katie, just re reading your last paragraph, all of it is spot on.
Really happy you are a part of this ‘community’ here.
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Thank you!
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Happy blogiversary! For me community is an extension of family. A group of people and experiences you hold dear. The online foodie community is very special to me. My family aren’t foodies and my husband lives the food I make but doesn’t have any interest in how its made or the ingredients. So, to be able to network with a whole range of like minded people is wonderful.
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It is pretty amazing isn’t it the online foodie scene. My current obsession is anything fermentation (or sourdough still) and to be able to connect with someone around the world over the shared amazement of making pickles…yep, love that.
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Congratulations Brydie on four wonderful years. The community I’ve been introduced to since I started blogging is the very diverse foodie blogger group. It’s been great getting to know you xx
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You too CL, you too 🙂
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Happy bloggy-versary Brydie. I think your focus on community is great because it makes so much possible. It is only in the last few years I have felt any sense of community where I live – being involved in our neighbourhood house and also recently with sylvia starting school – but I feel like the online community has been part of my life for longer and has presented me with so much support and opportunities. A great example is learning about sourdough bread – you were one of my key inspirations in this and I am still baking sourdough bread regularly
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It’s so wonderful being able to make sourdough isn’t it Johanna. To many that don’t bake bread it sounds like a complicated process, so I kind of feel lucky that some of that bready know how is all stored (in the crevices I’m sure) of my brain. Being able to pass some of that on, is wonderful and then you in turn pass it on, and then again… The wisdom of a bready village, I like that.
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Community is such a base and fundamental thing. It’s where humanity and society knit itself together to keep its back to the wall and to give itself depth, body and meaning. As the world becomes so much smaller thanks to the speed of the net and social media community all over the world has become completely possible. We can meet, share and learn from each other and in the process the world becomes a better place. It doesn’t matter if you are young or old, everyone has a place in this online community and it is an incredible leveller where first impressions flow from a persons words rather than what they look like or their perceived worth. So much can be learned when you join a community of like minds and it is really true that the sum of the community is worth so much more than the individual members…a community is alive, vibrant and cohesive and it gives you a sense of purpose and bolsters your spirits when you flag. The world might be damaged but through small and large communities we are able to knit it back together and give it new hope. I love your blog and am so glad that I found it 🙂
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I do love that about the online community too- first impressions being made on the words that are typed rather than what you look like. I think that’s so important, and aspect that you don’t get to utilise in day to day ‘real life’. Those first impression judgements are made already, regardless (for the most part.)
I love your last line too, “the world might be damaged but through small and large communities we are able to knit it back together and give it new hope.” Extremely happy you are a part of this community dear lady 🙂
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I read this a while back and had to think about my answer!
First- so glad you are still blogging- some people start and then when you REALLY love them decide it is too much work and quit. And I miss them. It is almost like losing a friend. So congratulations on your 4 years.
ANd community is hard. I love my blog friends- even though our relationships will certainly be only on the internet because I do not like to travel by airplane too far. ANd I love my extended family dearly- we get together and share and care and watch out for each other. And I love my neighborhood/church /township friends- we get together to make our living space better and provide safe places for children and adults to grow. I love the farmers market group that I am a part of- we teach, share, grow, eat, and dance together from spring to late fall- and I dearly miss them in the winter months.
I love that permanent beewax product- but I think I live too far away to participate in your give-away (Although I still have my picture card that you sent me last year posted on the refrigerator!!! 🙂 )
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Heidi you never know. Maybe I will head over to the states one day with my small clan, knock on your door and hit you up for some bread bears 🙂 Probably in winter as the opportunity to play in snow would be too great to pass up. xxx
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Come and I’ll make cupcakes and bread bears and we can run out side and make snow angels and have pirate fights (or Jedi fights) with the icicles hanging from the gutters along the garage!
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Oh my goodness they would LOVE it! Gosh every second. Makes me smile just thinking about it Heidi. xx
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Community is everywhere!! The farming community that we’re involved in is small but huge!!! We take care of each other, we look out for each other and we help each other. Yet we are each others competition in the business world. go figure….. never see that happen on wall street.
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Robin that is so true, and I hadn’t looked at it like that. People quite often speak of the farming community being a tight one, even though you are competitors as well…that’s kind of wonderful I think.
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Big congrats on 4 years. You are still so dedicated. Inspirational.
Community. That word conjures up so many images but it tends to be tricky to put into just a few words. It’s that warm feeling I get when I feel like I belong to a group of people: people with similar interests and values. Community is swapping eggs for honey from a neighbour. It is giving a gift of a bread tin and sourdough starter for Christmas knowing it will be appreciated and used. It is seeing neighbours pick greens from an abundance in my front yard. It is getting an email from a blogging buddy asking if I would like some lemongrass plants. It is getting to know amazing people in the blogging world and building real friendships.
Distance isn’t a barriers to community anymore.
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Just reading your comment gives that warm feeling BM. Those little things, those moments…that is what is all about. You heart gets that bit bigger, when you are connected with people of similar interests and values. Possibilities seem rather endless…and the fact that distance is no longer a barrier anymore is pretty damn amazing I think. Connection, in every sense of the word.
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Your blog takes me back to when I lived in Sydney with just a tiny concreted courtyard which did not deter me from planting herbs, vegies & flowers. Ahh memories! Keep up, I love reading it. Peri
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Oooh another who has already conquered the concrete courtyard…happy to have you on board Peri 🙂
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Happy blogversary Brydie my dear.
In some ways online community is such an ephemeral thing, in others it’s solid as a rock. I believe community establishes itself on a theme: sourdough, breadmaking, simple living, games, but it establishes itself and matures on the basis of plain old human emotion: dare I call it “love”? Bare soul to bare soul — without the shackles of face, age, gender, stereotyping & other barriers — we reach out to each other once we’ve established the foundation. Little connections grow into networks of friendship, it’s the light of these interwebs that makes the Internet — despite it’s murky corners — glow enticingly.
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Whew , I was going to say ‘Happy Anniversary…’ but it took miles of scrolling just to get to the reply box ! I think it is probably a fact that this is a wondefully popular blog and we allllll love reading it.
Happy Anniversary and looking forward to many more baking and cooking musings from the farm girl that lives in the city.
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