Laura Warden

The Albuquerque Botanical Gardens has scheduled a "Night Walk" for July 14, 2009. You're invited to come on out and explore the Gardens under moonlight as you take a guided tour in search of night-blooming plants, nocturnal animals and night pollinators.

This guided event has only limited space, so call ahead to make your reservation: (505)848-7180.

Can't make the Night Walk? Head over to the Botanical Gardens any time-- you'll be glad you did!

What's NMQHA, you ask?

The New Mexico Quarter Horse Association!

And they'll be hosting one of their amazing Quarter Horse Shows at Expo New Mexico (on the New Mexico State Fair Grounds in Albuquerque, NM) this weekend, July 9-12, 2009

Not an equestrian? So what! Come on out and watch; you'll love the show!

It's always fascinating to watch these equine athletes and their riders perform in wide-ranging disciplines. You'll see true cowboy events like team roping, western show classes, speed events like barrel racing, English showmanship and hunter/jumper classes, and so much more. Come on out and check out these wonderful New Mexico horses and watch them perform this weekend!

Warning: watching this show may be hazardous to your status as a non-equestrian!

Just click for more New Mexico horse resources and information.

A few days ago I posted a blog about the unusual fact that my most visited virtual tour was of the mall (see http://activerain.com/blogsview/1136956/my-most-popular-virtual-tour-the-mall-)

When I looked at the stats for all my virtual tours, I noticed something even odder: one of our Albuquerque Malls was far more popular than another with virtual visitors!

Coronado Mall, my "most visited" virtual tour, had been viewed by 1263 visitors. That was more than 50% more visits than the competing Cottonwood Mall, located on Albuquerque's West Side, which had only 712 visits.

Cottonwood Mall wasn't even the "second most popular" virtual tour; that honor belonged to the tour of the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta (which I would have pegged to be the top attraction, tour-wise myself.)

So what made one virtual tour more popular than the other? Until viewing the tour, non-Albuquerqueans wouldn't even have known the location of one vs. the other.

Is it something in the immediate look of the tour? Compare the two, and let me know if you notice one having better shopping "curb appeal" than the other:

Coronado Mall Tour:

Cottonwood Mall Tour:

And by the way, there's a definite pattern-- more web visitors looked at my "Albuquerque attractions and events" than looked at my property virtual tours, so maybe it's a good idea to get good community virtual tours up on the web!

Thought it might be fun to start a new series of posts asking readers to turn detective and identify the subject and location of a photo.

Here's the first in the series. I'll give you a hint--- it was taken somewhere in New Mexico!

Two questions for you sleuths out there:

1. What the heck is it?
2. Where was the photo taken?

Here's the photo:

Anyone else want to play? We could start a new group for photo detectives!