Bottoms Up

Why do they call them ducks? Could it be that it's simply because of this? The fact that they routinely duck under the water? I don't know, but this is one of the most fun things to watch. A whole bunch of ducks going down and then back up.

These ducks were an entertaining sight on an otherwise gloomy day. When I watched these ducks it was not on the most ideal of days. It was getting dark at about 3:00 in the afternoon. And on top of that, the sky was full of heavy clouds, and it was raining just enough to make it unpleasant.

The thing is that these ducks were still able to do the things they do all through this gloomy day. I realized while I watched them that the day didn't seem so bad after all. I wondered who else gets to sit there, yes I said sit, while watching as ducks somehow turn a gloomy day into a bright one.

Back up for air! She finally came back up from the water to see him waiting there patiently for her. As soon as she was up though, he took his turn to duck his head down into the water. This is a rare shot of both of them up at the same time. I was glad they were there helping me brighten my day.


Now for something completely different!

I received the Best Blog Award from my friend Nathan, over at Wild Facts. Go take a look at Nathan's blog. He features some of the most interesting and the strangest animals you've ever seen. Go ahead, you won't be sorry. And tell him Ratty sent you! You can find his post about the award here: Wild Award!

Thank you very much, Nathan!

Now the rules.

1. Post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award and his/her blog link.
2. Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you have recently discovered and think are great!

Nathan is a new friend so he may not know what all of you already know. That is the fact that I always cheat when I receive an award. I know, I'm terrible! I have my own very good reasons though. So what I'm going to do is present this award to all of you who comment here routinely who I haven't put in my sidebar yet. It's yours, all yours! Your official notification is when you read this post. It's a Best Blog Award, and I know you deserve it very much!

My Two New Awards

I have received two awards in the last few days. They happen to be the same award, but from two different places. Think of it, two different people thought my blog was worthy enough to give this award to me. That makes me doubly grateful! I really appreciate it!

I received this first from my friend VanillaSeven, and here is his post where you can find it: Best Blog Award.

I also received this from my friend Chuck at Secondary Roads, and here is his post where you can find it: Another Award Received ~ Best Blog Award.

I want to sincerely thank you both for these awards. I am extremely grateful that you thought of me and my blog.

And to everyone else, visit their blogs and tell them Ratty sent you.

Now on to the rules for this award. You must post it on your blog together with the name of the person who granted you this award and a link to his/her blog.

Pass the award on to 15 other blogs you have recently discovered, and think are great! Remember to contact the bloggers you’ve awarded to let them know they have been chosen.

Well, as most of you know by now, I just simply can't do anything, and I mean anything, without being a dastardly cheater! So the way I'm going to bend the rules this time is to give it to you, the one who is reading this. Most of you have a blog, and I've already been reading yours. I know you deserve this award as much as I do, so that's why it's yours now. You've read this, so it's too late to give it back!

You don't have to do anything but accept my congratulations. But if you want to write a post about it mentioning me, I will be extremely grateful to you. And you should know by now how much I like visiting and telling you how much I like your site. I really mean that from the bottom of my heart.

Thank you very much!

Do Robins Like Awards?

I want to share a couple of pictures of an American robin with you. I took these a few weeks ago and I didn't want them to become lost in my archives forever. I love every photo I take from the best to the worst. I save them all. These are some I like more than others.

I actually had to do a bit of work to get these. As you can see, the sky looks very bright because I had to do a little bit of an overexposure trick so the bird would show up in the shot. Every animal I see is precious to me, and I want a record because I'll probably never see it again.

The look on the robin's face here just doesn't seem to me to be a look that a robin would have. I guess our preconceptions just aren't always right, are they? This bird seems to have the intense look of a predator in its eyes. There's also something else there that I can't identify, and I think I like that even more.

Onto something a little different today. I have received an award from Wiggy over at Wiggy's World. Go take a look at his blog, you might just like what you see. Here's a link to his post about the award: Adgitize payment and other bits.

The BEST BLOG Award

Here are the rules for this award:
1. Anyone awarded with this one must pass this “BEST BLOG” Award to 15 bloggers who he/she thinks have the best and greatest blogs.

For the new awardee…
2. To receive and accept this award.

• Copy and save the award

• Make a post in your blog about the award, like this one, but write in your own words, or at least a reasonable facsimile.

• In your post, mention the name of the blogger who awarded you, and include a link to their blog.
  

• Please do leave a comment in this post so I know you accepted the award. This lets me know so I can leave a nice comment in your award post too.
  

And remember to contact the 15 bloggers to notify them that they have been chosen for this award, or at least as many as you can put together.

Well now is the time for me to choose my 15 bloggers... but many of you understand by now that I cheat. I have to do it, because I just don't know how to choose between my many friends. If you read this and want the award, just let me know about your post about it. I really do want you to have it.

This is also my way of notifying you. Any of you who have commented here before, and read this are the ones I want to give this award to. You mean more to me than anyone else on the internet. Please accept the award so I can have an excuse to wander over to your blog and tell you how wonderful you are! I'll talk to you then!

Most Inspirational Blog Award

I have received an award called the Most Inspirational Blog Award from Ann of Ann's Snap Edit & Scrap. You'll recognize Ann from the many wonderful comments she leaves on this blog, so she deserves a most inspirational comments award. Here is a link to her post about the award: Sorry, Very Long Winded

I'm not sure why she thinks her post is long winded. I enjoyed reading it very much. In it she tells an interesting but short bit about her history as a blogger. Go and read it for yourself. You'll find a few things in there that you will greatly identify with. It's a good post, so check it out and tell her what you think. And make sure you tell her that Ratty sent you!

Now comes the time where I let everyone know who I'm sending this award on to. This is the part where I usually let you all know what a dastardly rebel I am because I'm about to blow your mind by breaking the rules of the award. And I am! So who am I going to pass it on to?

I indicated above that Ann is an inspiration to me because of her wonderful comments here on my blog. It's all of you wonderful people who comment here that inspire me and keep me going. So this award is for you! You all know that I read your blogs. Yours are all very inspirational to me. So this award goes to all of you. Take good care of it.

I'm Honored With Two Awards

This is my third post of the day, and I hope you all read this one. I received two awards one each from two very good bloggers, who run excellent sites. Read further to find out the details of what I was given!

The first award I was given is from Chuck at Secondary Roads. He's also from Michigan, like me! He has given me the J'Adore tien Blog award. Here's a link to his post about it: Awards ~ Received, Acknowledged and Sent On
Visit Chuck's blog! It's another excellent place, and he does cool games from time to time too.

Just like most of my awards, and because I like to cheat any rules that might be tossed my way, I pass this award to all of you, my readers. Accept it if you like, you all deserve it, every one of you.



The second award I was given is from Jackie at The Painted Veil. She's not from Michigan, but she also has an excellent blog. She has given me the Most Inspirational Blog Award. Here is a link to her post about this one: Golden
And visit Jackie's blog too! Even another excellent blog, and there's a butterfly there that needs finding.

Can you guess how I'm going to do this one? That's right! I'm giving it to all of you who comment on my blog, because you inspire me every day. Again, accept it if you like, you deserve it!

Okay, that's the end of my three posts today! That was the most I've done in a day since last year! Have fun! And vote in the pole!

Zombie Chickens Are After Me

I have a little bit of business today that's long overdue! There have been some Zombie Chickens after me, and there is only one way to stop their evil rampage. I have to pass on the curse to somebody else. My friend John from English Wilderness and Make Nothing Online was their last victim, and he got rid of them by passing this evil curse on to me.

As you may have guessed, this is actually an award, but with a very cool concept, zombie chickens! Here's John's post about it: The Zombie Chicken Award: Origin And Nominations

Check out John's post. Not only does he have his own cool and unique take on the award, he has also done something nobody in the history of blog awards has ever done before. John actually turned into Sherlock Holmes, and hunted down the origins of this award! It's a fun read where you get to find out just a little bit about how these things get started. Go see for yourself, and leave him a comment telling him that I sent you.

Now for what the Zombie Chicken Award is all about:

The blogger who receives this award believes in the Tao of the zombie chicken - excellence, grace and persistence in all situations, even in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. These amazing bloggers regularly produce content so remarkable that their readers would brave a raving pack of zombie chickens just to be able to read their words. As a recipient of this world-renowned award, you now have the task of passing it on to at least 5 other worthy bloggers. Do not risk the wrath of the zombie chickens by choosing unwisely or not choosing at all...

I don't want to incur the wrath of the zombie chickens, but I've been chased by more frightening things than zombies in the past, so I give this award(curse) to any of you brave souls who would like to accept the challenge of the Zombie Chickens, and relieve me of this burden. If you want it, say so in the comments of this post. You can also comment on anything else about it too without incurring their diabolical wrath. Go ahead and accept this challenge! Or are you a chicken too?

The Cutest Poll Results

Well, it looks like this week's poll was a close contest. But after the smoke cleared there is definitely a winner! The Squirrels are officially the cutest of these five contestants! They won with 35% of the votes, 11 votes. The ending results seem narrow, but the squirrels lead the whole way!

The squirrels told me that they knew all along they'd win. They claimed to be far superior to any other forest creature. And who could argue their point when you look at the wonderful mother squirrel in the picture here. They will now constantly remind all the others of their greatness. Congratulations to those cute little squirrels. Don't you just love their big bushy tails?

Coming in at Second Place with 29% of the votes, 9 votes, were those lovable little Chipmunks! They have many great qualities of their own, such as those cute stripes down their backs. And how can you forget their insatiable curiosity? That is a very cute quality that at least deserves second place very much!

The leader of the chipmunks kept wondering how it was that the squirrels could possibly win over them. He asked me several times what the squirrels had that they didn't. I simply told him that I didn't really know. He finally decided he would have to investigate this further, and scurried off in search of the squirrels.

At third place were the Deer. They came in with a respectable 19% of the votes, 6 votes. They were the largest animals in this contest, so maybe that factored into their third place finish. Sometimes small and furry wins automatically. The deer have their own good qualities though. Who doesn't love the shyness of that most famous deer, Bambi?

Well, I interviewed the representative of the deer, which by coincidence resembled Bambi very much. She shyly walked over and told me it was okay that not that many of you thought she was cute. She said she really understood. Still, I could see the deep sadness and hurt in her face. She even shed a single tear before she turned and walked back to her place.

Fourth place belongs to the Ducks. They ended up with only 9% of the votes, 3 votes. I'm actually surprised at this one. Ducks seem a little cuter than that to me. Those cute bills that are made to scoop up food, and the way they duck under the water and stick their rear ends up in the air seems so charming.

I tried to interview the only duck that showed up for the contest. Well, the only adult duck. She was a mother with a full group of ducklings in tow. She was completely indifferent to this contest, and she only seemed interested in keeping her young ones in line. When I tried to ask her a question, she just turned her head and swam the other way.

And finally we come to the last contestant of the poll. The Toads came in at 5th place, last. They unexpectedly got 2 votes, which was good for 6% of the final tally. I know! I was surprised they got so many too! I'm trying to come up with a compliment, but I'm at a loss for words. Well, they are pretty good at peeing on people.

I was going to wrap this up right here, but the toad boss insisted that he get equal interview time. I waited while he cleared his throat, and he said in a gravelly voice that this contest was completely unfair. The audacity! He demanded a recount, but I told him to go and croak. He then threatened to give me a bad case of warts, and then hopped away in a huff.

Okay then! That's the end of this weeks Poll Ceremonies. I'd say this was the most successful poll yet here on The Everyday Adventurer. I hope the next one will be just as fun. I'll leave you now with one more picture of one of the winners. Here's another one of the cutest squirrels I have ever seen:

Isn't he just precious?

Off The Trail

I have done something that I haven't done very often up until now. I decided to venture off the trail into the wild woods. Most of the time before, I stayed on the path and took in my fill of nature from right there. At the time, I had good reasons for doing things that way.

I want any of you who are beginners to nature to read closely now. I stayed on the path because it is safer there. There are many poisonous plants in the forest, and other things that just can't be seen clearly. You can usually see very clearly anywhere you step on a hiking trail. There's not as much of a chance of stepping on a snake or something.

I've come a long way in learning what to look out for, so I decided to step off the hiking trails to look for more adventures. I started out by following a few hidden deer trails, but then I went wherever I could make it through. I found out a few very important things along the way.

My sense of direction had been excellent while I was on the trails, but when I was in the thick of the woods I found that I wasn't quite so sure. I would come back out onto the trails in completely unexpected places. When I found the strange plant I told you about yesterday, that turned out to be jack-in-the-pulpit, I wasn't quite where I thought I was.

Ths was all okay because I still knew the general direction of where I might find my way back to the hiking trails. Still, I recommend carrying at least a compass if you ever try leaving the trail. I have a GPS with a compass built right in, and I know my trails here as good as I know my own backyard.

There was one certain direction that I've been wanting to go for a long time, and I finally decided to try it. There was some poison ivy I had to walk around, but other than that the way was pretty clear. There was something I suspected I would find, and this was the day I was going to do it.

After traveling for a long way and beginning to become a little unsure of myself, I finally found what I suspected was there all along. It was a river that not many people ever get to see. Well, at least not this section of it anyway. I think I even found a small island that split the river in two. I didn't cross over to the island, but I will one of these other times. I figured I'd save that for an all new adventure.


I have one other thing I want to take care of today. This is a little off the trail for me too. I have received what is called the Six Hidden Treasures Challenge from Glynis at New Scribbles From Glynis Smy. Here is a link to her post about it: Archives Part II I like this one because it's an easy one. Here are the details.

The Rules

1. Take the Challenge picture and place on your blog
2. Find your favorite six hidden posts in the archives and add the links under the picture
3. Choose one other blogger and send the challenge to them
   
4. Link back to the sender of the challenge and New Scribbles
   

So here are my Six Hidden Treasures:

1. The Squirrel Strikes Back
2. Nesting Goose
3. Great Egret
4. 10 Tips To Get Close To A Deer
5. Hiking Tips For Beginners
6. Alice And The Dragons
   

I want to pass this challenge on to Rainfield over at My Journey. Rainfield has been like my blogging brother for awhile now. I have many great friends here in the blogging world, but Rainfield is one of the very first. You don't have to to take this challenge if you don't want to do it, Rainfield. I just wanted to let you know you are a great friend.

Game Results - 5 Deer

Again today I have a few things to take care of. First of all, I'm going to reveal what it was that you were looking for in my In The Meadow game from yesterday. There were exactly five deer roaming around the meadow that day. Two of them were adults, and I believe they were both female because I got a reasonably good look. And the other three of them were young ones. The picture above explains it all.

Now on to the winners of this game. Pretty much everyone guessed correctly that these animals are deer. The other part of the game was that you had to find out the correct number of animals. It wasn't quite as easy as some of the past games I've had, but maybe that made it more fun. But who guessed everything correctly? And the winners are...

1. Poetic Shutterbug
2. Elizabeth Barrette
3. Julia
4. Anonymous

Check out the comments to see how close each one of the winners' guesses were. Then go and visit their blogs and leave each one a nice comment. I know the ones with blogs very well, and they all have really good websites. I don't know who Anonymous is because that name is so common, but Anonymous, like the others, deserves congratulations for winning.

This second picture shows one of the two adults with the three fawns(young deer). These last two pictures are mostly here to give you a better look at the deer. I have some even closer shots of them, but I'll show you those in an upcoming post where I'll also tell you the story of the encounter I had with these five deer. It was actually very strange and even more interesting.

This last photo of the deer shows both of the adults with two of the fawns. One of the fawns is standing just behind the adult on the right. I think both adults are female. I had a good long look at both, and I shamelessly checked for the identity of them both. You can laugh about that, but I was just being a good reporter by checking my facts.

Now on to my last bit of business for the post.

I have received two awards, and on the same day! The Humane Award was from Glynis. You can find her post here. The Humane Award is to honor certain bloggers who are considered, kindhearted individuals. They regularly take part in blog activities and always leave the most supportive and encouraging comments.

The Kreativ Blogger award is from Jen(JStantonChandler). You can find her post here. In this one you share seven facts about yourself and then pass it on to seven other people. You can find more details in Jen's post. So go read it!

The thing many of you don't know is that I'm a notorious award cheater. I always fail to follow rules. I have my reasons. For one, I develop a terrible writer's block when trying to share things about myself. So read my blog and I will reveal these things little by little. It's easier for me that way.

Now, the last several times I received awards I failed to acknowledge them in a post here. I had been letting my outside world's troubles seep into this blog and I was feeling overwhelmed, so all I had room for was my usual nature posts. I wanted to show my appreciation to the people who gave them to me, but I just didn't have it in me at the time. So I want to give the Humane Award to all of the people who gave me awards in the past.

Now here's something a little different. I give the Kreativ Blogger award to the winners of my In The Meadow game. They're listed towards the top of this post. It's not seven, but that's my choice. For the winners, you may do what you like with the award. You can follow the rules that can be found at Jen's blog. Or you can admire the award right here, and leave it at that. It's your choice, and your award. I hope you like it.

Okay, this was a much bigger post than I intended. I'll be back tomorrow with my next post, and I'll be reading all of yours some time later today. Talk to you then!

Uber Amazing Award

I'd like to thank my friend Ron Centeno of In My Own Words for this Uber Amazing Award. He's one of my newer friends here, and anyone who's been reading the comments section lately will recognize his name. As I've been reading his blog, I have found that he is an excellent writer. Check out his site and see for yourself. Here's a link to his post about the award: Uber Amazing Award


Uber (synonym to Super) Amazing Blog Award is a blog award given to sites who:

a)inspires you
b) makes you smile and laugh
c)or maybe gives amazing information
d)a great read
e)has an amazing design
f)and any other reasons you can think of that makes them uber amazing


The rules of this award are:

* Copy the badge and put the logo on your blog sidebar or post.
* Nominate at least 5 blogs (can be more) that for you are Uber Amazing!
* Let them know that they have received this Uber Amazing award by commenting on their blog.
* Share the love and link to this post and to the person you received your award from.
* Come back and comment here so that your link could be added to the master list of awardees.


Everyone here knows that I cheat on these things, so how can I cheat this time? I have it! I would like to pass this award to all of the people who commented on yesterday's Florida Dragon post. You all deserve this award very much! Any of you who would like to participate are welcome to do so. Even if you don't, the award is still yours. Do with it what you wish.

Two Awards

I received 2 awards recently. One of them from 2 different people. This will be the first of 2 posts today. 2 is the magic number 2day.

The Kreativ Blogger Award

I received this award twice! First I received this award from The Retired One at The Retirement Chronicles. You can find her post about it here.

I also received this award from Sharkbytes at Get Off The Couch News. She did something ver different with it. She has the award post on her sidebar. Great idea!

Look at both of their blogs. Some of you already know how good they are.

The rules from The Retirement Chronicles for the award are to name 7 other bloggers to bestow the award to. In addition, the award winner must list seven things they really like.

The Rules from Get Off The Couch News for the award are to name 6 things that make you happy and pass it along to 6 others.

I will combine the two by listing 7 things that I like and that make me happy in no particular order.

1. Hiking & Nature (Both go hand in hand)
   
2. Baseball (Watching and playing)
   
3. Writing this blog (Why else would I create a fake war with squirrels?)
   
4. Watching professional wrestling (It's goofy but it's great fun)
   
5. Reading (Good long books are best, but even magazines are good)
   
6. Computers (Using, fixing, and building them)
   
7. Listening to Music (Specifically Queen and a few others)
   

There you go. That's my things that I like and make me happy. I'll talk about passing this award on at the end of the post.


The Uber Amazing Blog Award
I received this award from The Retired One at The Retirement Chronicles. You can find her post about it here.

Uber (synonym to Super) Amazing Blog Award is a blog award given to sites who:
~ inspire you
~ make you smile and laugh
~ or maybe give amazing information
~ a great read
~ have an amazing design
~ and any other reasons you can think of that makes them uber amazing!

The rules of this award are:
* Copy the badge and put the logo on your blog sidebar or post.
* Nominate at least 5 blogs (can be more) that for you are Uber Amazing!
* Let them know that they have received this Uber Amazing award by commenting on their blog.
* Share the love and link to this this post and to the person you received your award from.

As I usually do, I'm going to cheat a little bit again. There are simply too many people and blogs that I would send these too, so I won't list them here. If you want to see some well deserving blogs, just look at the links on my sidebar. That's why they are there. Also check my followers list. There are some excellent and very deserving blogs there too. That is my list of those who I choose to give these awards to. Any of you who want to collect them, they are definitely yours. Thanks for your great blogs!


Related Posts

• Friendship Award
• 5th Picture Meme
• Wintertime Lemonade
  

Friendship Award

I received a wonderful award recently... Twice! This is called a Friendship Award.

My friend The Retired One from The Retirement Chronicles gave me this award. Here's her post about it: Award!!

My friend VaBookworm from Confessions Of A Bookworm gave me this award too! Here's her post about it: The Friendship Award

The rules of this award are to paste the following text somewhere in the post:

“These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to those bloggers who must choose at least 5 more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.”

Now what I'm supposed to do next is list my 5 or more friends right below this sentence. Any of you who have been reading this site for awhile know that I like to do things a little differently (CHEAT). My list of friends is too long for that, so I'm going to pass this award to everyone I have linked to in my sidebar over on the right. I also want to pass it along to everyone in my Followers list. I visit many of their sites on a daily basis, so I'd like them all to have this award.

If any of you want to pass it along in a post of your own, leave a comment about it right here so everyone else here can read your post.

Thank you Retired One, and thank you VaBookworm for each award. They made me happy today.


I have another post today. Keep Reading!

5th Picture Meme

I was invited to a little game called 5th Picture Meme last Thursday by Karen & Gerard Zemek (Great blog, check 'em out). But due to my laziness, and having a case of the winter blahs, I have been putting this off for a few days. I waited because I wanted to do it justice. It's very similar to the Tag games that go around all the time, but this one seems much more interesting to me. Here's a link to the original post: 5th Picture Meme

This game gives a topic that makes things fun and easy for us to continue the game. It's not a scary challenge to reveal our deepest thoughts, fears, or secrets. It just asks each blogger that plays to show a picture and then describe it to everyone.

Well, that's exactly my kind of thing. I do that every day! So what more could I ask for than an excuse to do a special post about something that I like to do already? I could ask for a million dollars, and I think I will. If anyone has a spare million or more dollars, would you please give it to me? C'mon, I'll be your friend.

Oh yeah, in my greed I forgot the rules of the game, so here they are, quoted directly from Karen's site.

Open a document or file folder,
click on the fifth folder
and then the fifth photo.
Post the photo and describe it.
Then tag 5 other bloggers.

Well, since I'm a terrible cheater and a rebellious scoundrel, I'm not going to tag 5 other bloggers. I'm going to tag everybody. Every blogger that reads this. Every blogger that exists. And even others that aren't bloggers yet. Go and start your own blog, and continue this little game. Ha!

Okay, on to the description of the photo.

My photo here is the entranceway to my favorite hiking park, Woodland Hills Nature Park. This particular photo was taken not very long after I got my camera and started this blog. It was the first time I went to this place since I began taking pictures and writing about them.

I hadn't even gotten in there yet, so my adventures there were about to mean something completely different than they ever did before. This entranceway was a very familiar sight to me, but not to most of the rest of the world. That was about to change forever.

I remember taking that picture. I wanted to get the most important features of the park. The entry point is obviously one of those things. After that, I remember walking about twenty feet into the trail, and after taking about five pictures my camera batteries died.

As I stood there disappointed, I remembered that I had forgotten my spare batteries. So feeling incredibly stupid, I had to turn right back around and go home. When I retrieved more batteries at home, I came back to the park immediately and began my new journey.

And there you have it. That's my description of this one lonely little photo of today. It was fun looking back to that day. I had forgotten all about that incident until now. But now you all know of it too.

Now, for anyone still reading after that long bit of great art (windbaggery) I call a post, I invite you all to try this same thing. It's pretty easy to do, and for some of you it's what you've been doing all along. You don't even have to specifically name anybody else to continue it. I didn't.

So go ahead and try it, or don't, it might be fun. If you decide to give it a try, leave me a comment right here so I can help you promote it. Even if you don't decide to do it, leave a comment so I'll stop crying because there are no comments. That's it.


Related Posts

• Wintertime Lemonade
  
• My Honest Scrap Award
• I've Been Tagged

Wintertime Lemonade

This will be a two part post. First, I want to show my gratitude for something special, then it's on to my normal stuff in the second half of this post.


Karen of Karen & Gerard Zemek awarded me with the Lemonade Award. You can find a link to her post about it here: Thanks, Angel, For The Lemonade Award!

Thank you very much for this award Karen. The Lemonade Award is for sites that show gratitude and a wonderful attitude. I think that’s a good group to belong to, and I am greatly honored! Sorry Karen that I'm a little late with my post for it, but I didn't want to have it on the same day as my new Fiction Friday posts. I thought it wouldn't be respectful to do on that day. Again, I'd like to thank you, Karen for this award. It's greatly appreciated!


Here are The rules:

1. Put the logo on your blog or post.
2. Nominate at least 10 blogs which show great Attitude and/or Gratitude!
3. Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.
4. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
5. Share the love and link to this post.

I'm going to say right off the bat that I'm going to break the rules a little bit. My only excuse is, that's what I do, I can't help it, I'm a rebellious rule breaker! I do have great respect for those that follow them though. I'll follow the majority of the rules, but I'm going to throw rule 3 and 4 right out the window!

For the blogs I wish to pass this award to, this is where the daring rebel in me comes flying out. I'm going to do things a little differently. (Feel free to tease me about the rebel cracks in my comments section. I can take it.)

Look over to your right at My Favorite Blogs list, and below that at my Followers list. I wish to pass this award to every last person in those two lists. None of you have to accept or acknowledge it, but if you want to receive the award leave me a comment telling me so. I will then make an updated post with a link to you and your award post in it. I'll only know if you leave the comment.

I'm doing it this way because I know that while some of you like receiving these awards, others don't want to get involved. Both ways of doing things are perfectly okay. So either way your opinion lies, enjoy the award.

The last thing I'd like to say about this is, Karen, I hope this post meets with your approval. I really enjoyed receiving this award from you.

Here Are Some Who Have Accepted The Award and Links To Their Post:

1. The Retired One
2. Sharkbytes
   

Now on to part two of my post.

This part is for those of you that are still reading. For the others, pleeeaase come baaaack! I'm not finished yet! Okay, now that I got that out of the way, let's get started.

I am reenergized! I am rejuvenated! I am ready to go! I am going to show you what my precious nature trails look like right now. If you're thinking they look wintery and snowy, then you are absolutely right!

When I went out there, I wanted to show a bright and sunny day, so you could see that winter isn't all doom and gloom. It didn't happen that way. I did this right after I left work, and it's still a little too late to get to these places before the sun begins to go down.

When I walked out the door at work, it was a nice clear sunny day, but it just takes me a little while to get to any of my favorite parks. The good news is that the days are getting longer. Just a month ago, I wouldn't have even been able to try this. The darkness would have begun to fall on the drive here.

These photos actually look a little darker than it really was out there. That is only the result of my shortcomings as a photographer. I'll say again what I've said many times before. I really need to take the time to read the manual of my camera. Then I might begin to take some actually good shots.

Well, when I got there I saw more kids sledding down the Scenic Overlook at the park. I didn't really get any photos of that, because the other one from the other day was better. So I decided to walk down the hill to the hiking trail.

If you look closely at these photos, you can grooves in the snow on these trails. These grooves were created by people that were cross country skiing. They were going up and down these trails. It was only my odd attitude about taking pictures of people that stopped me from showing you some of them. I'm working on correcting that little oddity.

Part of it is that I always liked the photos of scenery without people in them. The humans always seemed to corrupt the scene for me. As I have been exposed to more photos and new blogs, my attitude about that is changing in certain circumstances. Sometimes a human presence enhances a scene, just as an animal can.

Something else I thought I would mention was how deep this snow is. It was not easy walking through this stuff. I had to walk inside the ski tracks, and I still found myself sinking down. I'm sure there is equipment that can help with this, but that's not what I'm about.

I'm not here to present this from the view of an experienced hiker. I want to show you that even though it can be difficult at times, anyone can go out and do this, with very little preparation and expense. These places are for all of us.

The good hikers get some extra enjoyment with their fancy equipment, but the rest of us need a good place to get started. We need to build our experience for ourselves sometimes, before we begin to move up to the level of the real outdoors people.

Besides, it's fun to learn these things as we go along. I learn something new every time I go out there. Only the new experience can teach me some of these things. All of this gives me a kind of outdoor innocence that I hope enables the beginners to identify with, and helps them realize that they can do it too.

Good day to you, and see you tomorrow!


Related Posts

• My Honest Scrap Award
• I've Been Tagged
  
• How Tall Are The Trees?
• Sledding
• Winter In Sumac Park

My Honest Scrap Award

The Retired One, from The Retirement Chronicles informed me that I have won the "Honest Scrap Award". I'd like to thank her, because it's a great honor that she thought of me for this award. Visit her site. Here is a link to her post: My First!!!!!

Here are the rules for the Honest Scrap award:

The honorees are to:

A) List 10 honest things about yourself - and make it interesting, even if you have to dig deep!

B) Pass the award on to 7 bloggers that you feel embody the spirit of the Honest Scrap.

Ten Honest things about Me:

1. Dogs are my favorite animals.
2. I am left handed.
3. I love Mexican food.
4. I had one of the very first home computers.
5. I love practical jokes.
6. I have built over two dozen computers, for fun.
7. Music is one of my favorite things.
   
8. Of course, I am a nature lover.
9. I watch pro wrestling on TV, and you should too.
10. I read constantly, and I love books.

That's my ten honest things about me. They're short but I have revealed a lot about myself in the last two weeks, and it's so hard for me to do it that I'm shaking as I write this. I've been stretched to my limit. I may go run and hide if this keeps up. What did you expect, I'm a mouse!

Now for the next part. I played a game called "Tag" less than a week ago. The people I tagged all took it well and did their best, even the ones who chose not to play. I thank them all. It was really my excuse to put a link to each of them up anyway, and that's what I'm going to do here.

I'm not going to ask anyone to participate this time, but if you want to participate I'll be honored if you do. If you do it, let me know in my comments section so I won't forget to comment on yours. Whatever you do, this award is for all of you on this next list. Every single one of you deserve it. I'm greatly honored to know all of you. There are a few more of you that I'm getting to know, and I'm sure you'll be on the next list.

My Seven Award Winners (This one goes to eleven):

1. WiseAcre
2. Rose
3. A.J.
   
4. Rainfield
5. Kruel
6. Jodapoet
7. Sharkbytes
   
8. Betchai
9. Steve
10. Scott
11. John
    

Well, I broke the rules a bit, and added a few more. But how do I choose between them? I couldn't, and I won't try. There are some great sites on this list, as well as great people. You'd do well to add any one of them to your list of friends. Start by visiting some of their sites and leaving a good comment.

That's the end of my Honest Scrap Awards section of this post. Since I don't have another post ready for today, I'm going to give you all some more photos from last summer just below this. Let's continue with our winter break for just one more day.

Enough of the words, on to the pictures.




That's it for the summer dreaming for a little while. And I managed to stay silent throughout the photos. I'll be back tomorrow, and this time I'll make winter look cool.


Related Posts

• I've Been Tagged
• Summer Quackers
• Lost In Time
• Almost Wordless
  

I've Been Tagged

Scott McQueen at Just A Thought... invited me to a game of Tag. Last time I was invited to play tag I was not quite up to it yet. This time I'm ready to go. Here's a link to his post: Tagged Again!!! Please visit his site. He has a good site, and we visit back and forth very often. You might like it. If my explanation of the game isn't clear, you can visit his site for another one.


Here are the rules

1. Link to the person or persons who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random and/or revealing things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog
6. Let the tagger know when your post entry is up on your site.

6 Random Things about me

1. I'm a very private person. I have trouble revealing anything about myself to anyone. That's why not very many people here know much about me. It's been a struggle for me to open up a bit, and games like this help me. I've been getting better about that, and there's even a few of you out there that know my real name now. I'll reveal things about me every once in a while.
   
2. Part of the reason I started this blog was to motivate my nature and hiking activities. I started seriously doing each of them at the same time. It's been working very well. They both keep each other going.
3. Scott mentioned eating dog food in his post. I did something else. I think it's kind of funny to feed dog food to the kids in the family. It might be kind of evil, but it doesn't hurt them. Most kids in my family have eaten dog food now. Some of them even like it, even a few that are now grown still do. You should see the looks of outrage on their parents faces when they see the kid eating dog treats.
4. I like music very much. I think I included this on the last one, but I'll do it again. Queen is my favorite music group. I've even made a few posts here about them to help promote their new album, in my own way. I like other music, but Queen is special to me.
5. When I was a kid my dad used to get farm animals for us. He grew up on a farm. That may not sound strange, but it is if you know that we lived right in the middle of the city of Detroit. It's not a very good place to keep farm animals, but we did it on several occasions.
6. Finally, this one is the big one. Some of you have already figured this out, but some don't know at all. I never told anyone, because no one ever asked. Some here have wondered if Ratty is male or female. I'm a man.
   

Here's My 6 Tag Links

1. WiseAcre Gardens
2. MY LIFE IS MY CHOICE
3. MyJourney
4. Legal Cat-asthrophe
5. A Poets View
6. My Quality Day

I have special reasons for tagging each of these people. We all visit each other's sites from time to time. There are more of you that I really wanted to include, but the rules say only six. I really agonized over leaving a few of you in particular out, but I might put you in next time.

Please, anyone reading this, visit these sites. They're all excellent blogs. You won't be sorry. They're all unique, and they're all very good. Along with a few others, I visit these sites very often, every day if I can.

Any of you that I have tagged only have to play if you want to. Last time I was tagged I wasn't really confident about blogging to do it properly. I understand there are also other reasons why you can't or don't want to play, so there is no obligation. But if you do want to play, it's seems like a fun game.

There you go. That's my Tag Post. This is my post for today. I'll have more nature stuff tomorrow.

In The Spirit Of Tag

WiseAcre invited me to a game of Tag. It looks fun but I'm not up to it yet. I decided to make a post in the spirit of things anyway. Here's a link to his post.


Here are the rules (Number 4 and 5 are where I stalled, because I don't know enough bloggers yet. I'm getting there)

1. Link to the person or persons who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.


6 Random Things about me

1. The name "Ratty" is originally the name of my imaginary friend from my early childhood.
2. I'm a computer geek and a half, but I don't look the part at all. No one would ever guess.
3. One of the reasons I started this blog was to improve my writing skills.
4. My favorite baseball player was actually only a manager. Sparky Anderson from the Detroit Tigers.
5. I like to read a lot. I keep a book with me wherever I go.
6. Music is very important to me. My favorite group is Queen.


Here's the part that I had trouble with. Here's 6 Links (not tags)

1. Writing and Art - A new friend and a very good site. Her writing is fantastic, her art is heavenly.
2. Who with the Autumn night - Another new friend and fellow hiker and nature lover.
3. Dr. Fong's House Of Mysteries - Very strange, very strange indeed.
4. Poor Richard's Almanac - Lovers of Benjamin Franklin, history, and everyday life.
5. Nature's Wallpaper - Another person from Michigan, with some great photos.
6. Michigan In Pictures - More interesting pictures from Michigan

Not all know me, but I like to comment on their sites. I'm a fan of all of these. Some are becoming friends.