Hi Linda,
Glad you like the new setup, more improvments in the works.
I’ve always enjoyed and had value from blogging in public, but it needs some though, in theory being in the open get you a bigger audience and more feedback. (I do find more responces on twitter than in the comments here now).
I use a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 UK: Scotland License here, as I would be happy for folk to find anything I write or make useful. If I use other resources here, mostly photos, I use ones with the appropriate licence and attribute (like the dog on this post).