Forty Days!

Our mountain wearing a shawl today, always a sure sign of wind!

This is probably of no interest to anyone but myself, but I'm going to record it here, anyway...as, to me, it feels like quite a big deal!  For those of you who aren't interested in what I have to say, I'll post plenty of pictures I randomly took while walking around the garden today.  You can just scroll quickly through those and continue on your merry way.  Or leave right now, should you so wish :)
Please click the read more button below to continue...

Ah, looks like YOU at least decided to stay a while longer :)

  Lovely to have you visit, today...SO...ON WITH THE SHOW!

 I posted my first blog item ever on the 18th November, full of trepidation, but also with a twinge of excited anticipation...would anyone OUT THERE even know I exist?

I had been reading other people's blogs for a couple of months and, although initially I'd visited very much "in secret" (no tell-tale trail left behind), I eventually felt brave enough to tentatively leave a comment here and there (this, after I'd eventually figured out how to do so).

Anyway, inevitably, the blog bug snagged me, too. I succumbed (no use trying to extricate myself, was there?) and, it wasn't too long before I started quietly deliberating the possibility of establishing my own...BLOG!
 

My motivation at that stage was largely so I could offer something in return to all those whose blogs I'd been enjoying.  I'd seen so many lovely, lovely homes and gardens and had read so many inspiring stories. I felt I needed to give something of myself in return, lest I forever be an internet ghost!!!

And, so it was that I duly plucked up the courage to share my plan
with my daughter,
who instantly and readily offered to help set me up...
RIGHT AWAY!

Before I'd even fully comprehended what I'd just let myself in for, she'd done most of the groundwork for me and was calling out, "Mom, what name do you want your blog to have?" and "What do you want as your password?" and so on...I'd not even begun to think that far ahead (GULP!!!)

After all,

I was still...

really only...

mulling things over...

in my head...

as I customarily do!!! 

 

  But...
young folk don't work that way, do they?
  They make a decision
and act on it...immediately!  

 No weighing up the pros and cons, no agonising whatsoever...so I thought I'd better come up with something FAST to appease her (besides, she was only home for a short while before heading back to the city, to her own home and busy life...I clearly didn't have time to dilly-dally!).

One or two of my initial choices were UNAVAILABLE  (darn!)
and so...
I had to scratch a bit (a LOT!) deeper...
my single brain cell was working overtime! 

I glanced distractedly out of the picture window, saw my favourite piece of driftwood, the one that my husband found for me during the first year of our marriage, and VOILA...
lightbulb moment, just like in the cartoons! 

  "Driftwood," it was to be...with my daughter quickly adding, "Ramblings" and, shortly thereafter she gleefully handed me the metaphorical keys to my newly born blog, "Driftwood Ramblings," with the injunction...

"Go ahead, now, Mom - type up your profile and set about writing your first entry to post... I'm on my way home...check back later to see what you've done!"

We hugged, kissed, said our goodbyes and off she went, leaving me, forlornly, to try to figure out what it was I wanted to SAY!  After all, you are supposed to have a voice on a blog, aren't you?  Oh, dear!  Perhaps I should have given this a lot more thought...

That is now history!
  My blog (such as it is)
is up and running
and...
 I already have 15 highly appreciated followers!!! 

 Wow!!!
  Isn't that just so exciting!!! 

So, to ALL of you...I really want to say THANK YOU for leaving your inspiring comments...

They inspire me to keep going...
 even though I'm not particularly adept with my little camera
but, hey!
 I'm learning and, most importantly, having FUN!)

 And...neither am I in the hallowed league of knowledgable gardeners (you all know who you are). The Master Gardeners and Would-Be Master Gardeners...those who not only know ALL the plant names, but can RECOGNISE and IDENTIFY them and know all about times to sow seed and when to plant what and where!

  I'm not a writer either, nor am I attempting to be one.
  Far too much trouble and stress to try and compete with
any of the many-truly-gifted-writers out there.
  I for one wouldn't dare!  

No, I've just been quietly having 40 days of fun, gradually getting to grips with this whole blogging thing. My son had to come to my rescue, techno whizz that he is (no, truly!) and bail me out of the mess I'd got myself into, after I'd already used up ALL OF MY ALLOTTED photographic space - in just over 30 days!  I didn't know I had to resize all my pictures, first!!!

I came into this blogging past-time close to the end of 2010 and I'm looking forward to continuing to learn and grow a lot more in 2011.  My husband is already eagerly starting to say he'll need to upgrade my camera...but I feel I'm still learning to use this one, so definitely not leaping about in any keenness, yet (I think he's disappointed at my lack of enthusiasm, but I don't want to leap ahead of myself!)

 
Don't know if you are... certainly nothing against it, for others ;)
...but I'm not in the habit of "setting myself up" with new year's resolutions.

 I tried that a long time ago,
failed abysmally
and thought,

"Why do I need to stress myself?"  

 There's certainly enough other stress going around without adding to it.
  I'd rather just quietly get on with the business of living my life,
which I mostly do quite happily and contentedly, 
just the way I am...
 

Raucous Toad agrees wholeheartedly with my sentiments.
  That's him, peering from the cover of his pondweed today...I wonder if he knows he's being overlooked by an owl???? 

 Fortunately for him,
the owl is a frozen moment in time,
a driftwood creation ;)

With the OLD YEAR on its way out and the NEW YEAR on its way in, I thought I'd leave you to ponder on this...

"There are times to cultivate and create, when you nurture your world and give birth to new ideas and ventures.

There are times of flourishing and abundance, when life feels in full bloom, energized and expanding.

And there are times of fruition, when things come to an end.
  They have reached their climax and must be harvested
before they begin to fade.

And finally, of course, there are times that are cold and cutting and empty, times when the spring of new beginnings seems like a distant dream. 

Those rhythms in life are natural events.

  They weave into one another...

as day follows night,

bringing not messages of hope and fear,

but messages of how things are."

~ Chogyam Trungpa ~

  I WISH YOU ALL A SAFE, HAPPY, PROSPEROUS

& HEALTHY 2011