I got my first award yesterday, from Thistle over at Of Thistles and Maple Leaves. Since she writes one of the most consistently amusing and engrossing of blogs, I’m highly flattered. And she’s a West Coast woman (sigh), which we slugs in Upper Canada can only aspire to in another life.
Although I’ve been doing this fitfully since 2006, I’m still trying to find my blogging voice, so it warms the cockles of my heart to see Thistle comparing my blog to a Christmas Stocking – I was thinking “dog’s breakfast” might describe it. Thanks for the much-needed boost to my confidence, Thistle!
There are rules attached to this award, as follows:
- List 6 things that make you happy.
- Pass the award onto 6 Bloggers you consider to be Kreativ.
- Link to the blogger who gave you the award.
- Link to the blogs receiving the award.
- Notify the recipients.
Six things that make me happy:
- Spending time with #1 Son, who lives in Toronto. He’s so smart, funny, and au courant that I have never ceased being amazed at my good fortune in birthing him.
- Lazy Friday nights with The First Husband, with sushi (blecchh) and red wine for him, smelly cheese from Quebec and white wine for me. During the summer, this ritual takes place on our sailboat; at other times of the year, in the sunroom (aka the Foredeck, because there is also a deck on the back of our house. Raccoons like to leave the evidence of their passage there, so it is known as the Poop Deck. We’s witty folks, us), with the oil lamp lit to remind us of the boat.
- Long newsy phone calls with my sister in Ireland. She’s a retired farmer, and she and her husband divide their time between their farm, nestled in the Wicklow Hills, and a house they bought as a pile of stones and rebuilt, in the Spanish Pyrenees. She is the diametric opposite of me – cute, skinny, loves to dress up, lives to party, loves the rural life, even though we grew up in the suburbs – and she has a fantastic social life. Spent ten days on the farm last May, and could have done with a visit to Betty Ford on my return. Unfortunately, she doesn’t spend any time on the computer, so the telephone is our only line of communication.
- My cat, Lucy. She’s fat, lazy, and supercilious, but she is also deliciously soft, purrs like a generator, and fills my empty nest.
- Reading by the fire on a cold, snowy day, with said Lucy lying on my chest, purring like a well-oiled love machine.
- Opera. When I was a kid, my father had a record player in his study, which poured forth a cornucopia of opera greats – Jussi Bjoerling, Maria Callas, Titto Gobbi, Guiseppe di Stefano. At the time, I hated it, because it drowned out my beloved Beatles. Then one evening, years later, I went out to dinner to an Italian restaurant in London, where they were playing opera in the background. I listened to an aria from La Boheme and it brought me to tears. I’m still not a huge opera buff, but a good tenor (NEVER Andrea Bocelli!) or a soprano singing anything from Puccini is a sublime experience. And Jussi Bjoerling and Maria Callas are now the cat’s pajamas for me.
List of bloggers to whom I would like to pass on the award? In no particular order,
I love going to Duchess Omnium and reading about her extraordinary life. And, every time I read about the horrific war raging in the DRC now, I think about her brave daughter, working with the VSO in South-western Uganda, right on the border with the Congo.
I thought I’d died and gone to heaven when I discovered Ruth Pennebaker and her sister over at The Fabulous Geezersisters. Up to that point, I felt like a complete dork, blogging at my age. But then I read Ruth’s funny and wise posts, and I thought maybe I am part of a great sisterhood of bloggers (yes, most of my favourite blogger-types, with the exception of luverly yumtious Stephen Fry are women).
Lucy Fishwife, over at Life happens between books makes me hoot. In many ways, her life reminds me of one of my past lives, when I resided in flats and bedsits in various parts of Britain (Would you believe Hull? Don’t ask!) and lived to spend time and money in bookshops. I lurk around her site, like the ghost of Christmas Future, but now I shall have to break cover, in accordance with the rules above. Hope I don’t scare her.
Brandy, at It’s like I’m … mmmagic! also makes me laugh out loud. But, while bubbly and effervescent, she’s also wise beyond her years and a wonderful teacher, inspired and energized by her students. This is one of the most creative and original sites I know. Downright Kreativ, in fact.
Marylou, at Tread Softly is new to blogging (at moi’s suggestion [preen]) and already she is just burning up the blogrolls. Such a talented and evocative writer – I’m confident we’ll see her writings between the covers of a best-selling book someday soon.
I found the most yummy blog at Karen Food. And I really do mean yummy – Karen has divine recipes and mouth-watering pictures of the results. I sent off an order for her Ras el Hanout spice medley, which arrived promptly and has more than lived up to expectations. It can turn boring old roasted chicken into something quite special!
Phew! All done.
Tessa…I have an idea…Let’s go, rent a cabin on Vancouver Island next summer, you, I, and any other writer types who want to camp out with us.(Martin can rent a sailboat and visit during “tea” breaks…And put an “AIN’T IT GREAT TO BE US” (“uninhibited seniors”) anthology together of essays about living life forward with creative clarity (or muddled exuberance.)…
Thank you for this most prestigious award, your generous words, and the list of more fascinating blogs for me to visit. I also enjoyed your list of “favourite things”, and, as always, your witty way of rendering them.
Tessa, I am absolutely delighted! I’ve never won anything before! I’m off work till Monday on a week’s holiday that “luckily” coincided with a big fat nasty cold, hurrah, so will address myself to the awards on Monday. Thank you! I never know if anybody reads my blog apart from my lovely commenters and my mother & husband (because I make them) so feedback is just fantastic. XXXX L
great list…and perhaps it’s not a bad thing sister doesn’t use the computer…there’s something to be said for occasional real conversation, that’s the way my PerfectSister and I like to communicate, either on the trail in spring/summer or on the phone the rest of the year…
and Puccini…breathtaking…although i admit to not listening to enough opera…LOVE Puccini most of all…
enjoy the award and thanks for giving me a few more to check out
Thank you so much for including me in such a distinguished list! I had already found Ruth — and through her, you — but not the others.
My daughter, btw, keeps assuring me she is safe, but every time I don’t hear from her for a week, and she doesn’t answer email, I fret all over again. She’s due home for Christmas. I haven’t seen her in a whole year! But I know she has done good work.