A little cookout on the deck

I would like to introduce you to some of my friends.  Normally I might have a little cookout on the deck, serve a nice selection of beverages and some carryout from Sonny’s and the Eastport Market—you wouldn’t want to eat my cooking—but these particular friends live very far away.  For that matter, you yourself might live very far away.  Besides, I draped a whole lot of freshly washed towels over the deck rail yesterday and went off to Chris Allen-Wickler’s birthday party with a light heart.  By the time I got home it was stormy.  I forgot about the towels until this morning.  Miss Sadie, the Cowboy and I would be embarrassed to have anyone over under the soggy circumstances.

Thus the miracle of blogging links.  Pour yourself a beverage, pull up a deck chair, and imagine you are at the Writing Studio and Bait Shop admiring the liverworts with a congenial group of people.  Mix, mingle, meet some of my pixilated pals: [Update 8/17/09: Pixelated! I meant pixelated pals!]

• Many of the blogs I love have a strong sense of place. Anna and Preston Surface capture Kansas. You will be in no doubt that you’re not in Michigan anymore, Toto. Take a look at Young Cowboys and their whole series on the Wabaunsee County Fair.
• Mrs. Uhdd is on holiday in the U.K. and has been writing wonderful posts about a peripatetic grasshopper from Devon (who turned out to be a cricket) and the Eden Project in Cornwall.
• Birgitte is a talented designer and photographer from Denmark. Look at the flower bowl in Thank You, or browse through her posts on Danish architecture, parks, and the absorbing subject of raindrops.
• If you love books, you’ll enjoy PJ Grath’s miniature reviews in Two Small Treasures, or her rediscovery of an old favorite in Day off, vacation evening.
• If you read Torch Lake Views regularly you’ve met Kathy, a/k/a centria, but you might have missed her posts from the Baraga Pow Wow, and that would be a shame.
• You’ve also met Amy of Flandrum Hill, and probably visited the Salt Marsh Trail in Nova Scotia with her.  Take a peek at her whimsical side in Going to Extremes.
• When you feel morose about the weather, visit Leslie Down Under, where, as in this week’s Hail Day in Canberra, it’s always the season opposite to ours.
• If that doesn’t pull you out of the doldrums, visit Scott Thomas, who took a little trip from western New York to Hershey. 

(This whole thing got started when both Kathy and Amy tagged me in one of those games dear to bloggers.  As we all know, I’m feeling cranky, so I declined to play by the rules.  However, I do want to be neighborly.  Welcome to the deck.  While you’re all visiting with each other, I’m going to sneak out and go to the Opening Reception at JRAC.)