I Blog Therefore I Am~

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Holler Red Tail Hawk WM1 El Calafate Patagonia (Please click to enlarge photos) dsc04159

Barbary Ape Gibraltar DSC03891

Antarctica

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Banff Alberta

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Cinque Terre

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Holler Hummingbird DSC01489

Holler Rose

My closest neighbors are coyotes (packs and packs of them and they are HUNGRY), rattlers (lots and lots of them and they are MEAN), and free range cows/bulls (the bulls aren’t too friendly either).
Forget cell phones. They don’t work out here. Forget GPS, it misdirects.
It’s best not to wander too much out here, the people (and their dogs) are kinda twitchy.

To reach The Holler turn right at the reeking chicken farm, proceed down a bunch of pot-holed semi-streets/dirt roads, past the abandoned refrigerators and occupied old RV’s and then things get kinda dicey.
My friends usual reaction to the trip to The Holler is, “You’ve got to be kidding!” Or, “Next time let’s meet half way.”

This is our little bit of heavenly Appalachia right here in rural California.
I like to write and if something strikes my fancy, usually something odd or unusual, you will learn about it here. And thankfully, at The Holler, almost everyday is odd and unusual. So “Holler Happenings” including photos of flowers, birds, and wild animal interactions, are included.

I travel three-four months a year so you will find my photos of locales from all over the world. The good, bad, and the better.
So put your feet up and let’s devote our attention to the best things in life,  the things we want to do.
To start here are some links:

Pinterest page:

Goodreads page,
http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/5908500-cindy-knoke

And “about me” before I retired and commenced this life of leisure:

http://www.xing.com/profile/Cindy_BartonLCSW

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/cindy-knoke-lcsw/4a/51b/b12

Cheers & Welcome!
Cindy Knoke
(AKA-Cindy Barton LCSW)

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.  You are welcome to use photos, but please site the source. Thank you!

1,011 thoughts on “I Blog Therefore I Am~”

  2. Rachael Charmley

    Hi. Thanks for following me! I look forward to relaxing into your blog, and I hope you find a story or two you like on mine. 🙂

    Reply

  6. My daughter and I used to see them every single time we drove up from my Mom’s house in Wasco and north towards Hanford (Steve Perry’s home town) they were all along the side of the road (43) early in the morning, always. They were adorable.

    Reply

    1. One animal I have seen way too little of are owls. I have an owl box and we have Great Horner Owls at The Holler who I hear all the time, but rarely see. I would love to see what you have!!

      Reply

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  10. Hi Cindy,
    What a wonderful blog you have! Beautiful photos and I love the description of where you live, or rather, how to get there. 😉
    Thanks for visiting my blog. I see that you are/were a mental health professional so I’ll check out your profile right away.

    Best,
    Heila

    Reply

    1. Very best to you and sorry I missed your comment until now. I do think getting to the holler is much of the challenge, living here is a joy! cheers to you~

      Reply

  11. Hello Cindy!
    Thank you for following my blog. I think you have a wonderful blog that I am going to enjoy following. I know how many interesting blogs are out there and feel honored that you picked mine to follow. I hope my stories entertain and inform and my photos bring you joy and wonderment.
    I travel mostly local but try to always find interesting places. I have lived in several different places and dig through my archives of photos to bring glimpses into places I have been. Sometimes I post a recipe because food tells a lot about culture.
    I am not a professional photographer, so my photos are sometimes a little fuzzy and there are telephone poles and wires and other things along with what I was photographing. The older photos are 35mm, the newer are point and shoot digital and a few are Samsung Smartphone.
    I am new to blogging so if you have any advice or critique please drop me a comment.
    Thank you again for following and to quote Mark Twain: “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” – Mark Twain
    Iris the Wanderer

    Reply

    1. Welcome & so pleased to meet you! You and I are on the same page about travel. It is wonderful in everyway! Cheers to you and look forward to many future chats~

      Reply

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  25. Hi there Cindy,
    Thank you for taking the time to stop by and check out my little corner of the blogosphere and the follow, your support is greatly appreciated. Looking forward to seeing more from you 🙂

    Have a great day,

    Eddie

    Reply

  27. I was not expecting anyone to hit the like button on my post 271, but I was glad it was you because it finally brought me to your stunning blog. What fantastic photographs, they are a pleasure to view.
    I would like to thank you Cindy for following my blog and for your numerous likes on my poetry, each one was very much appreciated. Your home sound idyllic despite the temperamental neighbours with their fangs and sharp teeth, but I suspect holler is perfect for someone so creative……. Thank you once again for lending me your time…..Paul 🙂

    Reply

  29. Wow, Cindy….I am SO GLAD you found my blog (and thank you for the follow!) so that I could find yours and see these INCREDIBLE pictures! OMG. You should’ve called your blog the eye candy blog! Wow. Am going to have a great time perusing your blog and again, thank you so much for the follow!

    Reply

  30. Good heavens. I think I only scratched the surface the other day when I was on here. I really just have to stress how grateful I am you came looking for me today because I couldn’t remember how to find you!

    Reply

    1. Awwww, blogging is so awesome because like minded people who otherwise never would find each other, do so here in blogdom. Thank you for your thoughtful and considerate comments. They are so motivating~

      Reply

  31. Woke up today and was transported over to Canada where my eyes beheld the most beautiful wild life flora and fauna. Then I read about this lovely lady blogger whose mantra is “I blog therefore I am”
    With photography so vivid and clear that you would find it hard to believe that you weren’t standing in the exact spot at which it had been captured!
    Wow just awesome…
    Thank you for visiting and following my blog and I shall look forward in anticipation to future visits.
    I have relatives in Maple Ridge BC and adore the place. In contrast to my comment on my last blog entry…it would appear that you really are “living the dream?”
    Thank you for brightening my Wednesday my friend
    Kind regards
    Bob

    Reply

    1. You live in paradise my friend!! You comments are so kind and so appreciated and exemplify perfectly why I enjoy blogging so much. I get to meet people like you!! Cheers to you and thank you~

      Reply

    1. So nice. Thank you. So far so good. The Holler is okay. So awful that this is happening again. So sad. Impressed though with the effective and rapid fire fighting response. So disgusted that some coward is going around lighting fires………It is only May and it is starting already. Thank you for your concern~

      Reply

  36. Hi Cindy! Nice to ‘meet’ you 🙂 sounds like an awesome place you have there!! 🙂 thanks for sharing your beautiful photos with us!

    Reply

  40. Cindy, thanks so much for popping over and reading a few of my archives (weird to have archives when I’m so new at this, but you know what I mean). I felt after I started this that by uploading so many on first day, no one really read a lot of them so I doubly appreciate you taking the time to check them out!

    Reply

  41. hello again, Cindy.

    As you know i I was invited by a friend, Imelda, to join the virtual blog tour. Imelda’s friend went live and published her VBT last 26 May, you can find it here http://lkharris-kolp.blogspot.com/2014/05/virtual-blog-tour.html.

    Imelda posted her VBT last week, 2 June. you can view it here http://mywordwall.wordpress.com/

    Mine will be posted on the 9th, presenting you along with 2 more friends. And on the VBT, we will have the honor to feature 3 outstanding blogger friends and include a brief description of their blog or short bio of the blogger (2-3 sentences). Then, answer the questions the best we can.
    1. What am I working on?
    2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?
    3. Why do I write/create what I do?
    4. How does my writing/creating process work?

    In our posts, we will have to mention the person who invited us. In my case, it is Imelda.

    This is the schedule of the corresponding posts:

    mine – June 9
    yours – June 16
    your 3 friends’ – June 23
    their taggees’ – June 30 and so on

    many, many thanks for accepting, Cindyr. You have lots of time to prepare for your 16 June post. ;D

    Reply

  42. Sounds a little similar to me and my new pursuits. Come and visit us in Spain one day. We’re a little isolated in a valley but not remote and even that seems to scare some of our friends. WIsing you well with your leisure and your creativity. A beautiful blog.

    Reply

    1. You are very kind! Thank you. I love Spain and definitely will visit again. And yes isolated nature does not appeal to everyone but it certainly does to me! I would love to visit~

      Reply
  47. Kris

    Cindy,

    I’m so happy to have stumbled upon your blog. Your pictures are absolutely stunning!! Thank you for sharing your talent. It makes me want to travel the world 🙂 Would you mind if I asked what kind of camera you use?

    Reply

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