Gratitude and Gull(s)

I am delighted to report that I have been nominated for the Versatile Blogger Award, and I am very happy to accept.  I will gladly follow the associated rules as passed on to me by Lemony (http://lemonygregghead.wordpress.com), as time allows (see below).  I will add the Award logo to my home page as soon as I figure out how to do that…

Rule #1:  Thank the person who nominated you and link to that person’s blog.

Lemony, although I have known you and your art for only a relatively short time, I have come to value not only your older and newer entries into your post archives, but also the feedback that you have provided to my offerings.  Thank you for your new friendship!

Rule #2:  Share seven random things about yourself.

1. I love the sound of rain on a tent (when I’m inside, warm, and dry).
2. My favorite scent is lily-of-the-valley.
3. I cannot imagine not sharing my life with at least one dog and at least one cat.
4. I believe that I have a photographic guardian angel who helps me, at unexpected times, to find very special circumstances and exceptional natural events, when I open my senses.
5. My birthday coincides with the peak of autumn color in northern Minnesota, one of my favorite places.
6. Apart from northern Minnesota, my other favorite part of the world (of the 50 countries that I have visited so far) is New Zealand.
7. My parents almost named me Olaf (I am grateful that they didn’t).

Rule #3:  Select 15 blogs or bloggers you have recently discovered or follow regularly and nominate them for the Versatile Blogger Award.

I choose to deviate a bit from this rule, as I have learned that other nominees have done:  If each new nominee is required to pass nominations on to 15 others, this seems like a chain letter, which I am against in principle, and in very little time the Award would lose its special character, because every blogger would have one.  I would like to nominate five others at this time, and may well add others in times to come.  If some of my readers are unaware of these wonderful sources of inspiration, I recommend them (in reverse alphabetical order) to you:

http://newinkspot.wordpress.com/

http://mikepillowsphoto.wordpress.com/

http://eccentric99.wordpress.com/

http://dezradespain.wordpress.com/

http://aliciascottphotographer.wordpress.com/

Rule #4:  Inform the bloggers that they have been nominated.

In closing, I’d like to add a photo that’s an example of the contributions that my guardian angel has made to my photography.  I had had a very long day in Australia and was getting ready for a good meal, an evening of report writing, and a few hours of sleep in the town of Yarrawonga (a local tourist bus sported the slogan “Linga Longa in Yarrawonga”—if you don’t understand at first, just say it out loud and listen to yourself) before another long day, and decided to take a walk to stretch my legs.  I soon found myself on a Bridge stretching out over one edge of Lake Mulwalla.  As I turned my attention to the sunset reflected in the water, a gull came slowly circling in for a late-evening landing.  I saw it coming and was ready with my camera’s drive set for sequential as it made its approach.  All five birds in the image are the same bird.