Paying It Forward

‘Jingle‘, has very kindly given me some awards.  Aren’t they just beautiful? I’m so happy to accept these, particularly (and this is probably a dreadful thing to admit) as they come with no criteria to fulfil. 

I’ve been meaning to say, for a while, that although I love the fact that my friends here have thought of me and been kind enough to pass on the bloggy goodness, the truth is that I can rarely think of a sufficient number of bloggers to pass awards on to.  I’m someone who likes to follow a relatively small number of blogs, so that I can devote proper time and thought to what you all write, rather than a quick ’comment and run’ policy.  This means that many of the bloggers I follow will have already received these awards, and so it leaves me rather stumped.  I feel I’m letting down the forward chain because the whole thing almost grinds to a halt once it reaches my hands. 

So thank you Jingle -  awards with no strings attached.  These give me the smiles without the  guilt. 

Blossom Like Snow

It’s the last day of May, my favourite month.  Everything is growing and the weather is improving, with the hopes of the Summer ahead.  The wild hawthorn here have shed enough of their blossom in the winds this weekend to make a fragrant, white carpet all along our little road and into our driveway.  It’s very pretty.

Posted for Macro Monday.

Ten Things

People have been so kind to me lately in giving me awards.   

My sweet friend Natasha, from She Left on a Monday passed on the Happiness 101 Award the other day, and then came Sugar Doll awards from Lisa at Peripheral Perceptions and Kenzie at Unabridged Girl.  Your support and friendship means so much to me ladies.  

I deliberately keep my group of blogging friends small in number and I’m guessing most of you will already know Natasha, Lisa and Kenzie but in case not, let me introduce you.  

Natasha takes gorgeous photos (her style is something that I secretly try to emulate – but always ultimately fail) and she writes so beautifully.  I’m convinced that one day I’m going to see her name on a book of her own travel or flower photos. 

Lisa and I clicked almost instantly as we seem to have quite a bit in common – similar age, similar outlook on life, similar lives in reality.  She’s funny, creative, thoughtful and writes from the heart. 

Kenzie is lovely.  She wears her heart on her sleeve so what she writes is honest, creative and insightful.  She’s a ‘must read’ blogger for many of us, I know, and I’m convinced that she too will be ‘in print’ one day.  

So the deal here is that I list 10 things that make me happy (the Happy 101 Award) and 10 things about myself (Sugar Doll).  I’m going to keep it simple by combining them as knowing 10 things that make me happy will also tell you 10 things about me.  (Lazy, or what)?  So, without further ado: 

Ten things that make me happy (and are therefore about myself)!

1.  My Family.  I had a bit of a difficult childhood so I worked hard to make our little family a happy, stable and supportive one.  I think it worked – I certainly feel at my happiest when surrounded by my family. 

2.  My husband.  We’re childhood sweethearts, literally a love-at-first-sight story, and despite a separation for a few years in my teens, we gravitated towards each other again (whilst I was engaged to another man …a story for another day).  I believe that we’re old souls who were destined to meet and will meet again next time round.  

3. My pets.  I’m a complete softie with animals but my pets hold a special place in my heart.  I’ve always loved cats and we have five of them now: sisters Mollie and Daisy, Bo (who lost her sister last year – and I cried my heart out for days) and Bengal brothers William and Harry (who were brought in to keep young Miss Bo company).  

4. Photography.  It’s probably kept me sane since my illness.  So much that I did before is difficult/impossible so photography has expanded to fill the gaps, keep me enthused, busy and creative.  I can literally happily spend hours either taking photos, sorting, editing or using them to produce new artwork with them. 

5. Creativity and crafts.  Always an intrinsic part of me but never more so than now, when I have the time to indulge my passions. Current faves are embroidery, cross stitch and scrapbooking (but tomorrow it may well be something else)! 

6. Gardening.  I get a buzz out of nurturing and growing things and being able to see the beautiful results – Mother Nature’s talents, not mine.  Which brings me on to… 

7.  Nature.  I’ll never tire of the beauty of nature and feel happywhen surrounded by it.  Cities drive me a bit nuts after about 3 days but wild and open spaces fill my soul (occasionally even moving me to happy tears). 

8.  Wildlife.  Ditto the above really.  The diversity of life on this little planet of ours, how everything is intertwined, the beauty of it all – I find truly awe-inspiring. 

9.  The ocean.  If I’m not by the sea I miss it terribly.  The sight, the sound, the smell, even the feel of it.  I used to boogie board in the summer and being carried along on a wave has to, surely, be one of the best feelings in the world – it’s like flying. 

10.  The sun.  It makes me happy.  To fling the windows and doors open and feel a warm breeze filtering through the house and hear the birds singing outside, as they are now, is just wonderful.  Don’t you find that everything and everyone seems so much happier when the sun shines?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now is the difficult part of this – I should pass this on to five more blogging friends but my blogging group is small and I know most of you have received these awards before.  I’m going to nominate two blogs that I don’t believe have participated and just say that if you’re a regular visitor here and a blogging friend of mine, please consider these awards extended to you too.

A Girl’s Guide to Turning Fifty - A fairly recent find of mine but this lady writes well – in particular, go back and read about her recent trip to India.

Snerkology - Tiff and I go back to the old on-line journalling days (remember those?!), when blogs were a mere twinkle in a programmers eye.  She writes professionally online in several places now and her blog is honest and  ’from the hip’.