Seven things...and an award

As part of the "Beautiful Blogger" award, I'm supposed to tell you seven things about myself. Okay, here are my 7 things:
#1. I was trained as a classical pianist. My first piano teacher was my godmother, who lived next door to me. I also play violin and taught myself clarinet in high school.
#2. I had a great-uncle who was a race horse trainer at Santa Anita, Hollywood Park, and Del Mar. I used to visit his "stable" on the back row and I loved the thoroughbreds! I always thought they were so big and magnificent! I vowed that someday I would do my best to save thoroughbreds. I now have 2 of them, Gigondas, a broodmare, and Quad, an off-the-track ex racer who never won a race.
#3. I LOVE to garden, a passion I inherited from a LONG line of farmers on both my mother's and father's sides. But, forget about me ever growing a house plant! I've killed every one I've ever had!
#4. I love animals and currently have 5 horses (all rescues), 2 dogs, and 5 cats. I also feed a scrub blue jay that apparently got lost from the mountains and has taken up residence in our neighborhood. As a child, stray animals would always show up on our porch and I would take them in.
#5. My dad taught me how to ice skate at a very young age and I was actually in training after the crash of the airplane in 1961 which decimated the Olympic ice skating team.
#6. My husband and I are now both avid photographers and we love to travel to Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming, as well as California, in search of objects to photograph.
#7. I come from a family of teachers. Both my mother and my aunt were teachers and our daughter is now also a teacher.
So, there you have it! I enjoy visiting other blogs and seeing the world through other bloggers' eyes and words. Please, help yourself to the award and pass it on as needed and thanks for stopping by!