Watermark

A Gratitude Post

Wulfgar! has announced the winners of this year's Montana Weblog Awards, and Watermark is tied with Raven's Nest as the Most Creative Montana Blog. This is company I am proud to be in. I'm also well pleased with Wulfgar!'s observation that it's pretty obvious that Mike, Sharon and a certain Sam from a certain creek have a very broad readership.

I'll post the complete list of winners below the cut -- where you should go, for some enriching discoveries -- but first, a few thank-you's:

• to Wulfgar!, for taking on what must be both a fun and an exasperating task, honchoing this now annual event
• to all of you who took the time and interest to check out Montana's offerings
• and to all who voted for Watermark

I also want to thank those folks, from all over the place, who have given thought and time to commenting in the Introduce Yourself! post. So far, we have:

• John B. | Blog Meridian
• belledame222 | Fetch me my axe
• Cheryl | Journey of Cross and Quill
• Mary Scriver | Prairie Mary
• John Baker | John Baker's Blog
• DrMeglet | randomness revovled around me
• Megan | Flaming Renaissance
• Cathy | The Quiet One
• Laura | Moments, Musings
• Jacquie | wild ink
• meika | meika loofs samorzewski
• pam | MarillaAnne
• Endment | Endment
• Leesa | Peace of My Mind
• Chia
• Theresa Quintanilla | QViews
• Pearl | Humanyms
• Michael | Stick Poet Super Hero
• Bitteroot | Bitteroot and Bergamot
• Anne | Ample Sanity
• Crafty Green Poet
• Lori Witzel | chatoyance

This thread is even more fun and thought provoking than I had anticipated. Even if you don't feel like participating, I bet you'll find the comments, and the commenters' sites, of interest -- check them out -- and, of course, check out . . .

 

PeeWee|Bibs: Cutest Cat Ever

Photo by Sue Pinkerton | Click to embiggen

This last Friday Cat Blogging post of the year is dedicated to Bibs, AKA PeeWee, and her human -- my cousin Sue, who takes the wonderful photos that have brightened my cat blogging posts this year. Let's review [all photos by Sue Pinkerton ~ click to go to posts]:

       

       

Thank you, Sue and Bibs, for most of the sugar on this blog.

Not enough cuteness for you?

Good grief! Well, try:

Friday Ark
I and the Bird
Carnival of the Cats
Carnival of the Dogs
Circus of the Spineless
Weekend Cat Blogging
Weekend Dog Blogging
LisaViolet's Tummy Tuesday
Kitty Movie Monday at YouTube

And don't forget -- this Sunday's New Year's Eve  Carnival of the Cats will be here at Watermark. Get those entries in, by 5:00 p.m. Sunday, Mountain Time.

Blog Carnival has a submittal form, and that is my strong preference for entries. The form makes things much easier on carnival hosts. However, a little caveat -- I have discovered that, if you use CoComment, you need to turn off the automatic mode before trying to submit your entry. CoComment and the Blog Carnival submittal form appear to be incompatible, at least on a Mac.

Or, you can send your catblogging URL to submissions (at) carnivalofthecats.com.

See you on Sunday!

Snapshot Poem: the week between solstice & new year's 02006

they say our days grow longer, our nights
more brief, but i don't notice. i act as
humans do, tying up loose ends, filing
important human papers, cleaning signs
of life from tables and floors, speaking
in cliches. sleet sweeps through our dim
streets, keeping us at home, or cautiously
walking, driving, steep-stepping along icy
untrustworthy paths to go spend more of
money that is increasingly scarce, if that
is possible to be. increasingly scarce.

the world grows harder, colder, more
slippery. even the dogs can't keep their
footing. my body clenches to an iron bar,
sure to fall and shatter, when one booted foot
steps outside. under that innocent snow --
sheer treachery, bruising duplicity. never
enough. never enough warning, support,
cushioning. never enough evidence to
coax belief, to elicit the faith my grand-
parents felt every day, with each sure
and certain step. tomorrow, they say, sun.

 

The ballot for this year's Montana Weblog Awards closes at midnight tonight. Mountain Time, of course. Git along thar!

Winter White

This lovely winter scene is by Catnapping, another Montana blogger. A perfect holiday greeting, posted here with her permission.

May we continue to be blessed with beauty and generosity, and may peace come to, and from, us all.

Have you been a good little human this year?

Want to earn some more good-human points, before it's too late? You could go feed some squirrels . . . OR . . . you could go cast your votes for the 2006 Montana Weblog Awards.

... all votes must be registered as comments to [A Chicken Is Not Pillage] website, or to the email address [email protected] ... The voting will remain open until Wednesday, December 27th.  The results will be announced before the new year.  You do not need to be a blogger to vote.  You do not need to be a Montanan to vote.  So, just vote.

Watermark is nominated in the Culture categories of Most Creative and Best Written. I think I might have a shot at Most Creative, but I do believe there are better written Montana blogs out there, and there are lots of categories to vote in.

So, if you think Watermark qualifies, and you feel like giving me a little holiday lift -- go vote for Watermark. If you would like to see just how good Montana Bloggers are, go check out the nominations and pick your winners. The competition is tough, fun, and enlightening.

You can't lose.

Unless, of course, you annoy Squirrel Santa Claws.

 

Goddess Daughter's Solstice Cat

Photo by Mariah B

Isn't he lovely? Well-loved, too. The kind of cat that can be tossed about and dressed in hats. As long as he gets attention, he's happy. Look at that smile!

I bet you can find lots more holiday smiles in the places listed below, but before you go there -- this Sunday's Christmas Eve Carnival of the Cats will be at IMAO, and the Sunday after that -- New Year's Eve -- will be here at Watermark. Mark those calendars!

Friday Ark
I and the Bird
Carnival of the Cats
Carnival of the Dogs
Circus of the Spineless
Weekend Cat Blogging
Weekend Dog Blogging 
LisaViolet's Tummy Tuesday
Kitty Movie Monday at YouTube

This Year; Next Year

ProBlogger is doing another group writing project -- this one includes prizes (one in particular) that would solve the cash-free holiday dilemma. So, I'm writing for luck.

The assignment is to write a post that looks back or looks forward -- a turn of the season post. Bloggers (and diarists) have a definite advantage: we have something to look back at. What I see, when I look back, is that 2006 has been a project year for me.

In January I participated in the Brainstorms Daypix project, and began The Artist's Way. In March, I did the 30-Day-Photo Challenge, and in April, NaPoWriMo (National Poem Writing Month.) In May, Poetry Thursday started, and I began to (sporadically) participate in UTATA's Thursday Walk. In July, and into August, I took a blogging vacation, posting less frequently, and using old posts instead of writing new ones.

In September, Brainstorms did another Daypix project. In November, I went completely overboard, doing both NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and NaBloPoMo (National Blog Post-a-Day Month) and now I'm doing the post-a-day project Holidailies.

Throughout the year, I continued with weekly Friday Cat Blogging and Wednesday Snapshot Poems, and this is not my first contribution to a ProBlogger Group Writing Project.

Why do I do this?

Well, I don't have a day-job, so I have the time, and appreciate the structure and community that these projects provide. As a non-pro blogger, without a specific niche, these group projects bring more eyes to my site -- and once in a rare while, a pair of eyes likes what it sees, and keeps coming back. Of course, this is mutual; I often add to my Bloglines as a result of these activities. Also, I'm approaching three years blogging, and fresh inspiration is useful.

And why do I not do the dozens of other blog memes and projects in which one can participate?

Sometimes because I already feel overextended, but often because they call for talents or skills with which I am not generously supplied. Some are designed specifically for amateurs, and I welcome those. Others demand some level of experience to do them even half-way well, and I tend to sidestep those, or offer something only rarely, when I feel particularly inspired.

Let me be clear, and in being so, offer you some advice: I do not do these to increase my hit count. I know, now, that sometimes that is a natural consequence of involvement in these memes, but that is not why I do them, and it is not how I choose which ones to do. I do those that set off some little spark inside me (even if the spark is just Wow, I'd really like to be able to give Davi an iPod for Solstice.)

I actually like cats, and other critters, too. I read and write poems, even when not encouraged to do so. I like taking snapshots. I like to write. I like to read what others write, when they care and do it well. I like to look at images, especially images made by people I know. I'm interested in a lot of things, and so I read and write about a lot of things.

What do you like?

Blog about it.

I will, in year 02007.

 

Oh, almost forgot -- come meet Watermark's readers and Introduce Yourself!

 

Winter Solstice

It was dark and cold and Grandmother said let's make a picnic, we'll hang the beaded sun on the ceiling, have lunch from a willow basket. She laid out great-grandmother's quilt, orange and yellow and blue, a homespun lawn on the carpet, and I in my nightgown and she in her lavender dress, ate tuna and crackers and chocolate off delicate china plates.
 



   

Snapshot 20 December 02006

one day
to solstice

all my days
grow short

they begin late
they end early

today the sky
is wide pale blue

the radio plays
its seasonal songs

the sparrows
sing theirs

all my years
contract

they shrink
they pass

quickly

i am carried
through them

by time and love
and loyalty

by persistent
determined friends

who open my house
to light

who open
my heart

5 Things You (Probably) Don't Know About Me

Ryan tagged me with this Internet meme. It's hard to think there might be much that readers of my blogs, or my About page, don't already know about me, but let's see what I can come up with:

1. My favorite movies are The Wizard of Oz and (brace yourself) Rocky. My favorite books are Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass (my beautiful childhood set sadly lost in the flood) and Four Gated City, by Doris Lessing. My favorite music is Bach: The Goldberg Variations, but I'm also a fan of Jane Siberry, Kate Bush, Ani DiFranco, Philip Glass, Annie Lennox, Nina Simone ...

2. Among my many (sophisticated) collections -- art, artifacts, baskets, crystal candle-holders, books and music, dishes and chandeliers -- is a small collection of large teddy bears. I did, however, have to gather them from several obscure and forgotten places for this portrait:

Yes. I'm 58 years old, and I still have teddy bears. Wanna make somethin' of it?

3. I'm fond of cats.

Oh, you knew that already? OK then.

3. I'm quite good at the verticals: though I lost some IQ points with the onset of this illness, I can still reach pretty high, and can sometimes drop deeper down than others do -- or than most would even want to -- but I'm not so good at the horizontals: human relationships, the good and necessary skills of small talk and social niceties. I used to be better at this, when I had energy to mobilize to that end. Now I'm nearly hopeless.

Thinking, reading, writing: Pass.
Relating: Incomplete at best.

4. Speaking of grades -- for much of my life, I suffered severe writer's block. When I finally got to The Evergreen State College, I arrived with a GPA of something like 3.5 -- with three or four F's on it. The F's were incompletes from instructors who trusted that I would, eventually, get around to writing that paper, which I never did, and the I's morphed, over time, into F's. An Evergreen prof suggested a contract that allowed me to complete all assignments verbally, since I would not write -- and so I graduated.

I think that, for me, to write is to tell the truth; and there were truths I was reluctant to face. Once faced, the writing gates opened.

5. Umm... Oh, I don't like nuts in things. I like nuts -- cashews and peanuts, anyway -- I just don't like them in things. No nuts in my cookies, or brownies, or ice cream. Nuts in Thai food -- that's OK. Maybe it's just nuts in sweets?

Maybe it's just weird.

Now it's your turn. I get to tag five more bloggers, and they each tag five, and so on -- until we get where we may already be, and almost everyone has done it.

I tag Prairie Mary, The Quiet One, Ample Sanity, Chasing Daisy (if you're up for it, if it's distracting -- otherwise, just ignore this), and Wulfgar! If any of you have already done this, well -- hey, I'm busted.

Happy Tuesday.