Most days I sit at my desk beneath the open window with the sights, sounds and smells of the world around me wafting through. These days there’s a hue of gold on the other side of the screen, the last hurrah of the flowering crab and ash trees in my yard. The sounds are of combines passing by on their way from one field to another, and wagonloads of golden grain headed into town to the co-op. It’s harvest season – time to reap the bounty of another year of blood, sweat and tears. We grow corn and soybeans here, in quantities and with efficiencies that boggle the human mind.

It’s a good harvest this year. Prices could be better, but yields are strong. And even as the grain flows through the mighty machines, prayers focus on the thing that matters most in Iowa – good weather.

In between phone interviews I crank out copy and sift through news feeds in hope of soliciting even more work. Occasionally, I stop off at my email address and Facebook page to keep up on friends and family and other assorted personalities.

Other days I venture out, camera and notebook in hand, to meet interesting folks and see interesting sights, and learn more about a host of subjects.

I am a reporter by trade and by nature – observing and recording what I experience in the world around me.

The written words and visual images reappear in magazines, promotional materials, on websites and in Twitter feeds.

And now, in blog form.

And so begins a new era….a new journey…

This blog has been a long time coming.

As more and more people tried to take me down this road, I finally said to myself, “You’re a Master Columnist for Christ’s sake (at least that’s what the Iowa Newspaper Association told me a decade or so ago), so surely you can blog.” That was obviously one of my confident days. Somehow I suspect it takes more than that and I’m about to find that out.

For those of you familiar with my newspaper columns of past years – “What’s New” and “So to Speak” – you will see more of the same.

There will be new material, of course, as I explore the new format and its possibilities. And of course, there will be new observations. Those are ever changing. It’s been nearly five years since I viewed the world through the columnist’s lens. My life, not to mention my audience, has undergone significant change since then.

For those just joining in, well, you’ll just have to keep checking to see what’s in store. I hope to post weekly – or somewhere around that. I will let you know via my Facebook page Queck-Matzie Writing, Graphic Design and Photography when a new one is about to appear. So LIKE or follow that page if you don’t want to miss a beat. Or follow me on Twitter @queckmatzie. The head’s up will appear there as well. There will be other fun stuff appear via those avenues, in between eloquent blog waxings. Feel free to share with your friends and family, or the guy down the street. The more the merrier.

There’s more to worldly observations these days than paper and ink. Yet the inspirations remain the same as when I typed copy, sent it to a printer across the room, then cut and pasted it into a hard-copy page. Oh, the life of a turn-of-the-century editor.

Truth be told, I do miss those days – at least the waxing eloquent about daily life part. There seems to always be something to share in this corner of rural America. This is where real people live and breathe. And being a part of that is what makes my life worthwhile.

This blog will also highlight my work, and my exploits as I go about it. If you’ve ever wanted to learn what a freelance writer does, here’s your chance. There will be photos, and commentary, and side-stories.

It’s an emotional journey, reopening this door, finding that part of myself long buried. Being a columnist implies allowing a view to the personal. And being a German, a Queck, a Mangels, and an Iowan, that is something I all too often try to avoid.

But I am also a writer, and the need to write, to tell, overrides apprehension. So tell I must, and will, to those willing to listen.

My horoscope says it’s time for my inner artist to come out and play. I hope it’s right.

So whether you are an old friend or a new one, come by yourself or bring a gaggle of cyber companions, hop aboard.

Gather around the open window – see how I view the world, and catch a glimpse into mine.

Here we go. Let the blogging begin….