I do believe it’s working. Thanks to @c @jeremycherfas @colinwalker @manton and others for advice and assistance. Baby steps pretty much completed! And to @sumudu for moral support. 
Micro.blog
@jeremycherfas Thanks. I am feeling quite pleased. Does look like usernames (unsurprisingly) need some work. No doubt they should be in some other format to go from here & back via rss successfully. Details.
@vanessa 🎉 Looking good! I replied to one of your posts yesterday from my site, and it got parsed a little goofy on your end -- not sure if that's due to my microformats or the rendering. There's always more tinkering to do on the indie web, I guess!
@alans So I see. I originally replied to this comment from within WP so no idea what happens to that. Your latest comment shows up fine. Stretching the limits of my abilities now!!
