A new start - a new name - a "new" blog...

Hello my blogging friends!  Yes, this is Kay from My Random Acts of Reading.  First of all, may I wish all of you a very Happy New Year!  I can't believe that it is 2012 already.  Doesn't it seem just yesterday that we were entering the new century?  And here we are in 2012.  Amazing.

I struggled for the last few weeks with what to do about a new blog.  I've been wanting to step away from the title "My Random Acts of Reading" and also step away from feeling like a book blogger only.  The way I knew to do this was to end the book blog.  My time away has been productive and I knew that I still wanted to maintain connections with the wonderful friends that I've made in the blogging world.  Yes, I could comment on your blogs and give a bit of information about my life, but I didn't want to have post-size comments.  I also have wanted to change up the design of my blog for a long time.  Well, today, my friend Les launched her new look and new name.  She went from "Lesley's Book Nook" to "Prairie Horizons".  Isn't that a lovely name?  And it is appropriate because she does live on the prairie in the midwest city of Lincoln, Nebraska. 

I've always loved the look of my friend Nan's (Letters from a Hill Farm) blog.  So simple.  So clean.  So perfect.  Today, I decided to make my change when it became clear that I could just change my name and my design, while leaving the old blog below.  I thought about deleting it and I did delete a number of posts, most of the more personal items.  However, I hated to take out all the book reviews and discussion posts. 

This is my compromise.  A new blog is born here, entitled Purple Sage and Scorpions.  An odd name?  Perhaps.  It is very much a word picture of life here in Central Texas.  My life.  The picture you see below the title is of purple sage, which grows all around us here.  I know it's found in other spots too, probably all the western and southwestern states.  I've always loved the dusty green of the leaves and cheerful purple of the flowers.  It will represent the happy parts of my life. 

Scorpions are a fact of life here as well.  One of the first things I did after moving to our new home was to consult with the "bug" people or exterminators.  I did not want to find myself stepping on a scorpion in the dark if I got up at night.  We have lots of limestone rocks in our area and lots of trees.  Scorpions love both.  The scorpions will represent the darker parts of my life.

So there you have it.  My new effort in the blogging world.  I will be stepping away from books and stepping into life posts.  There's no telling what I might write about, but there will be no formal book reviews.  I hope you guys will come along with me as I voyage here in central Texas.