Lindaraxa 2011...The View From My Window

 Lindaraxa's window overlooking Lindaraxa's Garden - Alhambra Palace

When I started Lindaraxa's Garden in April of 2009 I had no idea what I wanted to do with it.  If truth be told, I had just recently made the decision to stop trading in a stock market that had become a casino and no place for the small investor to make a living.  I had years of professional experience managing millions of dollars for institutional and private investors from all over the world and stocks were my love but, frankly, I was getting killed day in and day out by computers and fast money.  Now you have to understand that I have an obsessive compulsive  determined personality and whatever I decide to do I plunge in wholeheartedly.   It's a race to the top and to say I am also extremely competitive well, ...just ask my kids about their experience learning to play backgammon from their Mom!

Wall Street is full of people like me.  People who live that life 24/7 and enjoy it to boot.  It's not just about the money that can be made, it's more about the journey in one of the most exciting careers in the world.  But when the music stops and you exit the merry-go-round like I did professionally 10 years ago, the landing is awfully hard and substitutes hard to find.  Trading was it for a while, but then the crisis hit and the small fish like me packed up their kiosks and exited the party.

Lindaraxa's window from the garden

I can't really say what drove me to blogging, except it was something relatively new, unexplored and a challenge for someone like me.  More importantly, it was something I could get obssesive enthusiastic about and something that would fill my empty days now that stock charts and research reports were to be a thing of the past.  Cooking and entertaining had been a passion and a hobby since I was young and God knows I had enough recipes and entertaining ideas to fill a book or two.  I also needed a new challenge to fill my days now that I had put away my trading gloves so blogging,  food blogging,  became the new substitute for trading.

The maze - Alhambra Palace

Somewhere along the line, I also made an important decision. and that was to follow bloggers that were not all necessarily food bloggers. These guys and gals were more like me.  They were "older" for one, had travelled extensively, had years of experience in their field and had innumerable new things to share, for free, with neophytes like me, hungry for culture and entertainment in a little house by a lake.    These were the people I had surrounded myself with all my life,  people full of worldliness, sophistication and knowledge and here they were in front of my computer, everyday, willing and able to share their experiences .  So Lindaraxa came to a crossroads....as she usually does because she's just not happy staying on course and playing it safe (she's Sagittarius)... and discovered a new way to fill her days and fulfill her life with new ideas, new subjects and new friends.

Alhambra Palace - the gardens

I guess what I'm trying to say is I've become bored with just posting recipes.  I want this blog to evolve and mature and be vibrant and fun both for me and for you, dear readers.  So I will be doing some experimenting and branching out,  sometimes into things that are probably none of my business.  To begin with, there will be more of Lindaraxa's Tidbits, where I share etiquette ideas, history of food and entertaining, new books both cooking and otherwise, places I've been and recommend, etc.  We'll see...  I'm giving myself carte blanche but it won't be so radical as to drive away any of my visitors and subscribers, at least willingly.   For those of you who like recipes, there will be plenty of those, I promise, but I will try to post something different at least two or three times a month.  So if you want to come on this journey, fasten your seat belts...it may be a bumpy ride but we will figure it out, together!

Alhambra gardens

Oh! and Lindaraxa's Garden has now become just plain Lindaraxa, something I've been meaning to do for a long time but didn't dare so as not to upset the apple cart.  Might as well get you all bothered and bewildered in one fine sweep!

Photos: Google Alhambra Palace, Granada Spain