The Shaun’y Award for Blogging Excellence

My first blogger award! Sorry, this was actually done out of order. Apologies for the Star Wars method of releasing these posts :). Fellow blogger Nina at ninamishkin.com has kindly nominated me for the Shaun’y Award for Blogging Excellence — thank you, Nina. Recognition is such a humbling thing, especially when it comes from your peers.

To be eligible for the Shaun’y Award, your blog must show love, be yourself, don’t be others, don’t gossip, and then be shared by nominating ten other bloggers who demonstrate the same qualities. Here are

Pretty Little Birdie

This gallery contains 2 images. An unexpected early afternoon backyard visitor — a gorgeous Varied Thrush! Taken at max zoom, so not the sharpest shots, but given that he was a lot less fidgety than the other dickie birds who usually visit in late fall, it was nice to be able to capture him in this amount of detail.

This handsome little guy, with his striking black and orange plumage, is fluffed up in the denuded pear tree (no partridges in there, by the way).

Eight Telltale Signs that You’re a Writer

Writer Wordart (Photo credit: MarkGregory007)

You’ve got superior powers of storytelling and mind travel, but how do you know if you’re a writer? Here are eight telltale signs to look for. No actual cures or treatments exist, by the way.

You suffer from sleepless nights and a cornucopia of creativity. There is a direct correlation between both. The sooner you admit that you are a born writer, the sooner you should join Insomniacs Anonymous, discover the futility of natural sleep aids like a warm cup of milk and cookies, don’t call the plumber to fix that incessantly leaking stream of consciousness,