Water, Water Everywhere

"Water is the driving force of all nature."  Leonardo da Vinci

Water is the most essential element of life on Earth. In its purest form, it's odorless, nearly colorless and tasteless. It's in your body, the food you eat and the beverages you drink. You use it to clean yourself, your clothes, your dishes, your car and everything else around you. You can travel on it or jump in it to cool off on hot summer days. Many of the products that you use every day contain it or were manufactured using it. All forms of life need it and, if they don't get enough of it, they die.

You may live in a place where the water is plentiful, but where I live in the Arizona desert, the average rainfall is less than nine inches a year and with the average person using 150 gallons of water per day, we need to be mindful of water conservation. A lot of the landscaping here is what we call "desert landscaping" where there is no lawn that needs to be watered, just low-water-use plants. Our children are taught from a young age not to leave the water running when they brush their teeth and we attempt (usually unsuccessfully) to limit our teenagers' showers to under five minutes!

But at this time of year, thoughts of water are more about fun (and cooling off) than conservation. About the only way to endure the summer heat here is to spend a lot of time in the pool . . .

. . . or at the water  park . . .

. . . or escaping the heat altogether by going to the beach in California.  The ocean is my favorite form of water!

Our July theme here at FOL is "water" (in case you hadn't guessed!) Isn't summer the most perfect time to photograph water? Water is so much a part of the summer for all of us, so whether you are surfing at the beach, sailing a boat on the lake, fishing in the river or just hanging out in your own back yard with a water hose . . .

. . . show us your favorite ways to enjoy the water this month and post your water shots to our Flickr pool.  Don't forget to indicate that they are for the "water" theme to have them considered for an In Focus selection. Have fun, stay cool and most of all, enjoy the water!