click on picture to enlarge

click on picture to enlarge

This morning I could see a really good sunrise brewing.  Sometimes it is hard to get good pictures here because we live like cockroaches in a giant development.  When we first moved here, the proximity of other houses made me claustrophobic.  But it is far from convenient to just pack up and find a better place to watch, so I just take what I can get.
(There is space here.  I cannot remove this space.  This is the exact same problem I had a couple of days ago and skipped posting.  Today I just decided to try to fill up the space with something else and see what happens.) 
 
 
 
 

 

This morning, however, being encased on all sides by houses was not a terrible burden.  (It was probably better elsewhere, but I loved it here.)  What I love about these two pictures is that they were taken about two seconds apart.  The top one is looking east where the sun was just peeking over our mountain.  The bottom one is looking west.  I think they are both beautiful, but how different for the very same sky.
click on picture to enlarge

click on picture to enlarge

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Last week I got my first blogging award!  It came from Madge at It’s a Mad Madge World.  I was so honored to get it from her, because HER blog makes MY day.  Madge’s blog is funny.  Madge is funny.  It is not a hilarious sort of funny, but a quieter humor, and I love it.

 

There are some rules associated with this award, but I decided to change them.  I am supposed to pass it on to 10 blogs who make MY day, which I am going to do just because I want everyone to know ten blogs I love.  But the rules I am changing are this:

 

If you get this award, you can do with it what you please.  You can pass it on, or you can do nothing.  You can put it on your blog, or you can do nothing.  You do not even have to acknowledge you got it from me!  For my part, I just want to share it, but I completely do not expect anyone else to do anything with it because I know you probably already have plenty of awards, and do not have plenty of time, and you may not even know I exist.  So follow my rules about it and make your own rules.

 

Here is my list of people and blogs which make my day:

  

Jennifer H at Thursday Drive.  Jennifer is an amazing writer.  Her topics are funny, heartbreaking, lovely, anything.  But no matter her topic, she writes it well.  Also, Jennifer H is the one most responsible for forcing encouraging me to blog.  (Maybe I should hate her for that!)  Whether a sense of duty or genuine niceness, she makes sure she reads all my posts, which are definitely not as eloquently written as hers.

 

Sherry at Sherry’s Place.  Sherry has a green thumb and a beautiful garden and beautiful potted plants.  Every picture I see makes me envious of her flowers.  Plus she is quite apt at taking amazing pictures of it all.

 

Christy at My Photography, My Passion.  What I love about Christy’s blog is that she photographs her life and shows it to us.  The places she goes, the things she does.  She loves nature photography (as do I), but there is no real theme (that I have detected anyway.)  Plus she and her Prince Charming have the same timeline as me and my Prince Charming, so we have a little bond there.

 

Michelle at The Rocky Mountain Retreat.  How this woman can find so many beautiful and different pictures day after day is beyond me.  She lives in a beautiful area and lets us see it up close and personal.  She is dedicated to making her blog something to be shared and enjoyed.  She is also a genuinely nice person.

 

Suzanne from At Home with the Farmer’s Wife.  I love the country and want to live in the country.  I live there vicariously through Suzanne who has a terrific way with words to cover everything from sewing tutorials (with cool projects) to being able to determine which animal barn it is at the County Fair just by taking a whiff.

 

Lynn at the the VintageNest.  Can I just say, “Pink!”  She loves pink, and so do I.  She is a riot.  She is nice.  We share extremely similar tastes.

 

Hilary at The Smitten Image.  Hilary is another nature photographer whose topics vary, but I love them all.  She’s clever, and she has some dragonfly pictures I am dying to find time to duplicate as a stamping project.

 

Holly at June Cleaver Nirvana.  Truly I cannot think of a place that makes me laugh more.  There is no other blogger like Holly.  My favorite thing that she does is called “Holly’s Animated Life,” in which she illustrates her post with whiteboard drawings.  Monday Potlucks are always a surprise.  She is also a good photographer and has innovative ways to present her pictures.

 

Ducky at Hints and Guesses.  Well, I just have to say that WHEN Ducky posts, it makes my day!  Ducky knows many, many things about blogging, but unfortunately does not put them to much practice herself.  So when she does, I am elated.  She has a lot to write about.  So DO IT, Ducky!  Go ahead.  Make my day!  (By the way, I will be doing the meme she has posted there in a few days.)

 

Marvin at Nature in the Ozarks.  I was first attracted to this blog because I’m from the Ozarks, though from a different state than Marvin.  But I have come to love this blog because it is so thorough and educational, and Marvin has quite a sense of humor.  He has definitely made me pay much more attention to the buzzing, crawling things around.  I even try to photograph a few, but alas, Marvin is one of the bloggers that has given me “lens envy.” ( I cannot begin to capture things as he does due to lack of appropriate lens.  And probably talent, actually, but right now I can blame it on the lack of lens.)

 

Klaus at Virtua Gallery, A Photographic Journal.  My last post mentioned this website.  Klaus is quite a birder, and if you do nothing else, go check out this photo.  His pictures simply amaze me every. single. day.  And he always has more than one to amaze me every day.  (I have a lot of lens envy when I visit this blog, too.) Besides his terrific photography, I love his attitude about lots of things.  (You will have to look around his blog a bit to understand what I mean by that.)  He is also quite encouraging, and makes me laugh.

 

That was eleven.  Oh well, I said I was changing the rules.  I have a few others I would like to share, but if I ever get another award, I will do it then.

 

By Louise Cannon