“The Perfect Storm”: that’s what Dave said yesterday – about our two-month old Golden Retriever puppy, pictured above and below, whose name is Storm.

There’s a special story attached to this. About 7 years ago Dave’s brother’s home was robbed and his adult Golden Retrievers tragically poisoned, leaving a litter of 1-day old puppies to fend for themselves. At a moment’s notice, a wonderful blind lady brought her Labrador (that had recently had pups) to act as a surrogate mother. Over a few hours, we witnessed the amazing process of this dog accepting the new puppies as her own, assisted by her breeder, who handled everything through tender touch and feel. By the following morning, they were a close-knit family, the pups proceeding to grow up perfectly.

Our little guy’s father was one of those puppies and a sibling of the two males that Dave’s brother kept. The lovely natured Lab who saved their lives was called Storm – a dog and name that we instinctively loved. So when we heard about this new litter, it simply seemed right to adopt a puppy and name him Storm, in her honour. More so after unexpectedly learning later that Storm shares my birthday

He is helping to fill the hole that Jina has left, since disappearing 7 weeks ago. Quest is certainly excited to have a new playmate, who is quickly getting acquainted and wasting no time in digging up our garden:

Quest & Storm saying Hello

Storm and Quest digging in our garden

It’s fascinating to discover the differences between the dogs, whether individual or breed-related. Quest has never been a digger, avid swimmer nor retriever, all of which we suspect Storm will be. We anticipate plenty of muddy paws traipsing through the house, but perhaps we should count our blessings. As regular readers will know, Quest had particularly expensive taste as a puppy – car panels, gate motors, glasses and the like. All things considered, we’ll be happy if Storm stays focussed on the flowerbeds.

Regardless, though, there’s nothing to do but love both our boys

Quest keeping a watchful eye on Storm

Storm in search of Fun, or is it Food?

It’s time to spread the love around the blogosphere and celebrate 2012 with some online gratitude

First and foremost, heart-felt thanks to Amy Nora Doyle at Souldipper (based in Canada) for her gift to me of the Liebster Award (meaning Favourite):

This is passed on with a request to recognise the blogger who gave it to you, along with 5 of your own favourite blogs.

My personal blogging journey, which is rapidly approaching 3 years now, has been so inspired by other bloggers around the world that I can’t limit my list to less than 8 (plus Amy of course). Each of these special virtual friends have contributed ongoing inspiration, delight, love, beauty, insight, perspective and laughs out loud on countless occasions. I recommend them all for a fabulous global Blog Tour! Here they are, listed in alphabetical order for the sake of fairness:

Cindy Taylor at The Only Cin (South Africa)

Jamie Dedes at Musing by Moonlight and The Cat’s Meow (USA)

Kate Shrewsday at Kate Shrewsday (UK)

Lance Ekum at The Jungle of Life (USA) – who has also contributed a guest post on blogging tips here

Linda Brits at Tokeloshe (Canada)

Lin Eleoff at Lin Eleoff (USA) – a.k.a. The Worst Mother

Nancy R. Hatch at Spirit Lights The Way (USA)

Tammy McLeod at Agrigirl’s Blog (USA)

The sun-kissed poppies above were part of a recent birthday gift from my brother to my mom, and so lovely that I couldn’t resist taking a photo of them. In the true spirit of paying it forward (one of the greatest gifts of photography), I’m sharing them especially for these wonderful bloggers, a number of others who I’ve not included but appreciate immensely, and of course, all of you readers.

THANK YOU to each and every one of you for everything you do to make blogging such a blessing!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! May your wishes find wings and your heart’s desires be fulfilled in 2012.

Our dreams took flight last night, in the embrace of beautiful sky lanterns that breathed enchantment towards the stars. Mine couldn’t seem to wait to take off and floated first with a prayer for our beloved Jina, who disappeared inexplicably again almost three weeks ago. Hope burns silently for her safe return.

Sky Lanterns taking off on New Year

Here’s more of Dave’s photography from our garden:

Sky Lanterns sailing away

Sky Lanterns leaving hands

New Year's Eve Sky Lantern Celebrations

Sky Lantern about to fly

Sky Lantern in flight

New Year Celebrations - Johannesburg, South Africa

Warmest thanks to our wonderful friends who shared this New Year celebration with us – and also to the Faces of Hope Foundation, on whose behalf Dave bought these sky lanterns in July (at a travel lunch auction described in my post Beware: Balloons Can Be Addictive).

If ever there was proof of the fact that giving is receiving, this is it. What a treasure we were granted through his spontaneous gift. Thank you, my love, for everything!

For more photo’s, here’s a link to my Facebook album: New Year Sky Lanterns – and to order lanterns (for delivery in South Africa) visit www.lightalantern.co.za (“Don’t light a rocket, Light a Lantern”).

Finally, thanks to www.appleseed.org for this special inspiration and life philosophy:

“I am the new year. I am an unspoiled page in your book of time.

All that you sought and didn’t find is hidden in me, waiting for you to search it but with more determination.

All that you dreamed but didn’t dare to do, all that you hoped but did not will, all the faith that you claimed but did not have — these slumber lightly, waiting to be awakened by the touch of a strong purpose.”

Here’s to the most magical year imaginable, for us all!

Hey everyone, hope you’re all enjoying a fabulous Festive Season and have had a blissful Christmas, those of you who celebrate it!

Our holiday kicked off with a magical week at Mabula Private Game Reserve, where we stayed in timeshare chalets (which are absolutely lovely). Dave’s daughter Terri-Lee, her husband and little girl joined us, along with great friends and my special cousins from Switzerland, whose 3 children were introduced to African wildlife for the first time – to their total delight

I thought you may enjoy taking a peek at the spectacular game viewing as much as we did, on our early morning and late afternoon drives:

Warming up the cameras after a beautiful sunrise - Mabula Private Game Reserve, South Africa

. . . so here’s a snippet of wildlife photography:

Male lion after his morning drink

Giraffe pair through treetops

Zebra foal crossing a dirt road

Buffalo grazing in grass

Female Kudu peeping from bushes

Rhino grazing at golden hour

In between game drives, we soaked away the midday heat in the swimming pools, while evenings revolved around the braai in the boma, along with bottomless glasses of wonderful South African wine.

For a whole lot more photographs, feel free to take a look at my Facebook album: Mabula – Dec 2011

If all that pleasure wasn’t enough, we also took a trip down the road to learn about, interact with and ride elephants at Adventures With Elephants. This was such a phenomenal privilege and experience of a lifetime that I’ll dedicate a separate post to it, so please stay tuned.

In the meantime, here’s wishing you all a FANTASTIC New Year, as well as everything and more that you wish for yourselves for 2012!

While on the subject of motorbikes, I’ve decided to balance my last road biking post with something interesting from the other side of the fence, given that Dave is so involved in both aspects of biking.

Enduro World magazine constitutes a lot more than the catchy byline “The Best Ride You’ll Ever Read” implies. The big-hearted people behind the brand are constantly contributing to the underprivileged communities that they come into contact with through their off-road motorbike training and tours.

A recent example of this involved the “Friends of De Wildt Toy Run” which took place on the 3rd of December near Hartebeespoort Dam, not far from where we live in Johannesburg – at a favourite weekend enduro riding haunt called De Wildt.

The Enduro World crew gathered a group of motorbike riders, who took along lots of toys and helped to distribute the huge heap that was bought with the help of fund-raising, at the local orphanage and in the surrounding areas. This entailed meeting at the police station, accessed via tar road, and then venturing out on two wheels, to reach as many children as possible. Without space in his bum bag for a pro camera, Dave took along our mik-en-druk (point-and-shoot) and captured some shots to share with you:

Mark Roach handing out toys to children at the Friends of De Wildt Toy Run, South Africa

People and motorbikes at the Friends of De Wildt Toy Run, South Africa

Dave Petersen with GoPro camera at the Friends of De Wildt Toy Run, South Africa

That last photo features the GoPro camera (on the helmet of Dave Petersen from the 2 Wheels TV show), which is stirring up a storm among sportspeople everywhere, especially after the hectic footage below hit the world stage – of a mountain biker being knocked off his bicycle by a careering Red Hartebeest buck!

Never ones to be left out of the action, Dave and his son Michael now have these toys too. Michael’s is the GoPro HD Hero2 and Dave’s is the Drift brand, which he decided on after much deliberation about the comparative features between the two. I reckon they’ll be ready to offer an in-depth shootout before too long, and provide some pretty cool footage too.

Works for me, since at last I’ll have the real picture of what they get up to on their motorbikes . . . although I’m not sure what that will do to my nerves