Kreativ Blogger Award

I had a special surprise waiting in my inbox this afternoon.  Gary Keimig, Wyoming artist and gentleman, has awarded me the Kreativ Blogger Award!  I am so honored!  Thank you!  And yes, I am putting aside other tasks because acknowledging this and passing it along just cannot wait.

Here's what Kreativ Blogger Award recipients are supposed to do:

1. Copy the award to your site.
2. Link to the person from whom you received the award.
3. Nominate 7 other bloggers.
4. Link to those sites on your blog.
5. Leave a message on the blogs you nominate.

There's also something about listing 7 things about yourself, so I'll dispense with that first:

1. I was born and raised in Santa Barbara, California.
2. I also grew up in the Eastern Sierra Nevada, where my family owned Rock Creek Lodge.  I spent every summer there until I was 21.  The mountains and my experiences there shaped who I am.
3. I majored in English at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon.  (Yes, I love to read.)
4. My husband is my soul mate.  We like to say we share one brain.  We're one of those couples who completes each other's sentences.  Sickening, I know.
5. We chose not to have children, but do have two rather spoiled dogs who think they're people.
6. I (we) LOVE to travel.  I get depressed when we come home from trips, even just day trips.  Life "out there" is just so fascinating and exciting.
7. The thing I am most grateful for these days (aside from all of the above) is this world I now inhabit online.  I know there can be negatives - I think we have all complained about being tied to our computers - but I have met the most creative, inspiring, friendly, warm-hearted, REAL people here.  You make my day everyday with the things you share on your blogs or in the comments you leave on mine.  Thank you!

Now, let me introduce a mere handful of the aforementioned people.  I hereby pass the Kreativ Blogger Award to these lovely women (in no particular order):

Suzanne Berry - LOVE her bugs and everything else she does - and certainly her friendship
Camilla at bloom - her photography frankly takes my breath away
Sarah at Bee House Hives - I came for the bees and stayed for the everyday beauty she shares
Kim at Bella Della Farm - she shares her most wonderful farm - and her charm
Diane at Sabino Canyon - her photos and stories about her desert home always educate and delight
Karen at Beelieve - she reminds me to be silly, free, feminine, and perhaps a bit wild
Akiko at Art by Akiko - her ability to capture animals on canvas is simply beyond words

Now, I must say that this is a very short list!  There are so many more I wanted to include.  But many have already received this award, so I wanted to share it with those who have not (as far as I could tell).

Ladies, thank you for the wonderful things you bring into my life through your blogs.  You are truly Kreativ spirits. 

(And please don't feel that you have to pass this along if that's not your "thing" - it is given without obligation.)

A Virtual Visit to the East Mojave

First, let me confirm that I am still here.  I apologize for neglecting my wonderful dedicated followers.  I have been so busy with other things that I simply have not had a spare moment to post anything. 

What has kept me away?  Well... it all relates to the desert.  My husband and I are knee-deep in the final editing and layout of a book being published by the organization we volunteer for (the Mojave Desert Heritage & Cultural Association, for those who might be interested).  I have also been busy pulling together some of my desert photos for two calendars to sell (I hope!) during the annual get-together for the organization's membership the first weekend of October.  One is scenes around the East Mojave and one is wildflowers and cactus flowers that are found there.  You can check them out at my Zazzle store.  All of this is very fun stuff, just time consuming.

Anyway, since I finally had a moment I thought I'd share one of my favorite places in the East Mojave.  This is a photo of Ford Dry Lake, taken in early October 2004.  The plant on the left is catclaw acacia and that's cholla on the right.  The mountains in the distance are the Woods Mountains.  Ford Dry Lake is named after the Ford family, who homesteaded there in the early 1900s.  It's a particularly quiet, peaceful part of the desert, as not many people wander that far off the main roads.  It's a beautiful valley and would have been a really nice place to live.  I know a lot of people find the desert to be rather desolate, but I think the silence and scenery are divine.

And on that note, I bid you adieu until I find the next opportunity to reappear.  Also, please be assured that I am keeping up with reading your comments and am trying to respond as much as possible.  I do always love hearing from you!

Not merely an absence of noise, Real Silence begins when a reasonable being withdraws from the noise in order to find peace and order in his inner sanctuary.

~ Peter Minard

Thursday's Sunset

Clouds come floating into my life,

no longer to carry rain or usher storm,

but to add color to my sunset sky.

~ Rabindranath Tagore

Happy Cactus Monday

Beavertail Cactus (Opuntia basilaris)

For more colorful cacti, visit Terri's Painted Daisies.

The more ugly, older, more cantankerous, more ill and poorer I become, the more I try to make amends by making my colors more vibrant, more balanced and beaming.

~ Vincent van Gogh