This is my first diary entry here on OSM. It’s a way for me to keep track of my own work here, but comments from others are welcome. I’ve been an OSM member for seven years plus but still consider myself a novice user. The number of edits I’ve made is fairly minuscule in comparison to some, although I have used OSM data to create maps in QGIS. My background is in geography and rural development and that is the focus of my interest in OSM. Urban areas seems to be pretty well mapped here but once you head outside the cities and towns there is a lot of blank space on the map. I’m aiming to map rural areas Ireland in as much detail and as systematically as I can. I’m particularly interested in things that are challenging to map, like smaller rivers and streams, small areas of woodland, farms, and old ruins and monuments. I also have an interest in placenames that are known and used locally but are not officially recorded. I’ve already mapped the extent of what I know from my own local knowledge of where I live (near Youghal, Co, Cork, Ireland) and where I’m from (Drom & Inch, Co. Tipperary, Ireland). So now I want to move on to systematic surveying of other rural areas through a combination of on the ground fieldwork and using aerial imagery. I’m also trying to switch from the in-browser editors to JOSM. Along the way I’ll update with challenges and problems as they arise. Tips from other users and invitations to collaborate are welcome.