It's Award Time! ... and it's a double whammy!

Yes it seems that there are readers out there who appreciate my blogging efforts and find my little corner of the world and my take on it, quite interesting. Both my blogs have been chosen for little awards and I'm extremely grateful for the recognition and somewhat humbled because I have to admit, I just do this for fun, and I don't really put much thought or planning into my blogs at all.  

It's taken me a long time, but I've finally gotten around to returning the privilege bestowed on me by Helene many, many moons ago.

I received the  Versatile Blogger Award   from Helene at Graphicality-UK back in January!!!  She listed my blog amongst so many fabulous blogs and it was not only a lovely surprise, but an encouraging lift to my blogging spirits.





For those who are in the dark about this particular award, let me quickly outline what it's all about.  I'm not sure where this award originated, but the sentiment behind it is quite simple.  It's a call-out, a mark of recognition for those who really add a bit of this and a bit of that to their posts, and show a many-sided aspect to their blog.

The rules once you've accepted the award:
1. Thank the person who gave you the award  ....  check!
2.  Include a link to their blog ... check!
3.  Select 15 bloggers that you follow or have just discovered who you would consider fit the bill of a 'versatile' blogger ... check!
4.  Tell 7 random facts about yourself ... check!
5.  Include this set of rules in your post ... check!
6.  Inform each of your nominated bloggers of their nomination ... check!

So, after following rules 1 and 2, let me now move onto my selection of great versatile bloggers.

Aussie bloggers first:

diane b @ Adventure Before Dementia  full of wonderful tales of their travels both here at home and abroard.

Liz @ The Greatest Of These Is Love takes the most fantastic photos and showcases loads of spectacular Australian scenery from her corner of Oz.

Titania @ Lavender & Vanilla does not only have a great gardening blog, but has several blogs where she writes and shares her thoughts on many varied topics. 

I love popping by visit Marisa @ Onslow and Miss B to see what's happening in her sub-tropical garden down in the south-east corner of our state of Queensland.  She also loves to chat about her two best dog pals, Onslow and Miss B, and her travels to parts near and far.

It's great fun visiting Bronwen @ A Snail's Eye View to check out the goings-on up in the tablelands area up in the north of my home state.  She writes on such a wide variety of topics and always with a wicked dose of wry humour!  I also love her music clips 'Music For Writing', which are often Aussie made!


Pacific Neighbours next:

Mama Nene of Mama Nene's Garden has the most spectacular collection of Orchids and Cacti.  I just love popping by to see what her latest highlighted plant is ... great photos too!

Aaron @ Aaron's Gardening Blog is a young man with a love of plants in general, but carnivores in particular.  He shares his wonderful photos and posts in between hours filled with study and school work.

Steph @ Steph's Green Space is a gardener from Malaysia who has a passion for plants and grows a surprising number in quite a small space.  She shares successes, disasters and her learning along the way.  She also shares aspects of her culture and her travel experiences.

J.C. @ My Sunny Happy Garden is yet another of the Malaysian garden bloggers who loves to share not only photos and information about great tropical plants, but also photos of the beautiful country of Malaysia.

Then there is the lovely Andrea @ Andrea In This Lifetime.  She is a fountain of knowledge when it comes to tropical plants and writes great posts about her travels, her garden and the beautiful butterflies and birds of her country, the Philippines.


Now to the other half of the world:

Eileen @ Gatsbys Gardens writes about her beautiful garden and shares her expertise in garden design, as well places of interest around her home state of Illinois.

Sue @ My Garden And Me who posts about her various interests from gardening to sewing to baking, and her travels to places in the sun.

Flowerlady @ FlowerLady's Musings also posts about her lovely garden, her favourite plants and she shares her beautiful stitched creations and re-cycling projects.

Bridget @ Arigna Gardener will teach you all about her sustainable way of life over in Ireland and she shares environmental issues that are close to her heart, and close to the heart of all of us who worry about our world's future.

Lastly, but definitely not least, is Shirley @ Rock-Oak-Deer who shares not only her own fabulous garden in San Antonio, but also other stunning


O.K., it's time for 7 random facts about myself.  I found this bit difficult at first, but after a bit of deliberation I decided to go with ... well  I never!

1.  I've never watched Star Trek, Kill Bill, It's A Wonderful Life or The Grapes Of Wrath!
2.  I've never smoked!
3.  I've never worn stilettos, a bikini, a fur or a tiara!
4.  I would never have believed I would be a Grandmother before I turned 50!
5.  I never stepped onto an aeroplane until I was in my 30's!
6.  I never stepped outside my home state of Queensland until I was in my mid 30's!
7.  I never stepped outside my country of Australia until I was in my late 40's!


In closing I'd really like to say once more ...

to Helene.

Time for an Honest Scrap!

Clare at Curbstone Valley Farm very kindly bestowed me with the Honest Scrap Award recently and I have finally gotten around to acknowledging this lovely gesture ... and to participating in this meme.

First ... I have to think of 10 honest things to tell you about myself that you probably wouldn't glean from my blog. This task is not an easy one ... I know for a fact that I'm pretty boring really and there's not much about me that would make a fascinating read!  Neither do I think it will be highly entertaining or even remotely amusing!  Anyway ... here goes...


Number 1.  My childhood dream was to have an elephant as my pet!  Yes ... whacky and sweetly perverse I know, but oh so true!  Common-sense considerations such as where on earth I would have kept it, or what on earth I could have fed it ... were never given a moment's thought!  I just knew it would be wonderful.  What's not to love about a pachyderm?  Just look at this gorgeous creature ...

Sadly, though my Dad thought I'd be just as happy with a Cattle Dog named Rover!! 



Number 2.  It's been over 30 years since I last played the piano and I've actually taken it up again.  I never liked it much the first time around ... another of my Dad's brilliant ideas.  I was taught by an old Irish nun, Sister Cecilia.  I would nervously try to get through each and every lesson while eyeing off the rather hard, thick stick of wood sitting on the top of the piano.  If you made what she considered a careless mistake, she would rap you across the knuckles with that stick.    

Maybe that had something to do with why I never developed a passion for this skill.

Well, anyway, I've been wondering often over the last few years whether I might like to try to play again. Lovely hubbie bought me a piano for my 50th ... it was a total surprise!  So, now I'm practising and trying to revive my long unused skill.   Believe me, it's no mean task .... I'm am not particularly gifted in this area and all that rubbish about once you've learned something it's so easy to pick it up again ... well that is just plain rubbish!   There's nothing easy about trying to get these old fingers and memory working again.  Thanks goodness, it's only the kookaburras and wallabies who have to put up with the racket!


Number 3.  I used to wait with anticipation every year for a new Catherine Cookson novel ... and then I'd read it right through to the end without a break immediately after purchase!  Loved everything about her writing ... shocking but true.  It's something I would NOT admit in public ... should really have been reading something far more high-brow as friends considered her books a bit of 'fluff!"  But there it is.  I was devastated when she left this world never to write again!  I have the complete library of her works and all the videos as well ... I still re-read the books and watch the movies every now and then.  I even made sure hubbie and I visited the north-east country when we went to England on our first overseas trip - I so enjoyed finally seeing all those places mentioned in her work .... Harrogate ... Tynemouth ... South Shields.

Number 4.  I was a child bride ... married when I was just shy of 19 ... and proud to say we're still together after more than 30 years of marriage.  So many well-meaning people thought to tell us at the time that we were both too young and it would never last.  They didn't know that I was fortunate enough to pick a lovely bloke!  We met the year after this following photo was taken ... during our Senior year of High School.  Wasn't he a spunk???  He' still gorgeous and even though we've both probably had our doubts over the years, we remain the best of friends and in love.

Number 5.  The thing I am probably the MOST proud of , however, are my two gorgeous boys.  Well-meaning people yet again told us we were far too young to have a family straight away, but even though it was very, very hard at times, there was never a moment's doubt that they were and are the best thing in our lives. Well, now they're men, but somehow they'll always be my blonde-haired, blue-eyed babies!

Number 6.  Even though I love all my grandchildren sooooo much ... there will always be a rather special place in my heart for the little guy who really struggled to make it into the world!  He's a precious little soul. SSSHHH!  Don't tell the others!  I was fortunate enough to be at the hospital when all my grandchildren were born ... but the day this little man was born was unlike anything I'd experienced before.  I don't think I've prayed so much in all my life!

Number 7.  I love purple! Lilac! Lavender! Mauve! Violet!  Always have.  My room as a child has purple everything - curtains, bedspread, sheets, rug and the walls were painted purple.  My lovely Dad ... who couldn't do handyman jobs to save himself (but he could grow a mean rose or two!) ... decided to paint my bedroom walls in my favourite colour as a special treat. 

He couldn't find the right shade of purple so he decided to mix up a batch.  Of course he hadn't estimated the correct amount it would take to paint the entire room ... so he kept running out of paint.  Every time he came back from the hardware shop with another can, he would mix up a colour that was a slightly different shade to the last one he'd created.  As a result, the wall panels were almost every hue of purple you can imagine.  Today, you will find lots of purple in my garden.

Number 8.  Love tea ... hate coffee!!  Love dry white wine ... hate red!!  Love fresh bread and tasty, even smelly cheeses ... hate eating lots of healthy salads and squash!!  Love Scotch and Dry ... hate beer!!  Love dogs ... hate cats!!  Love the cooler weather .... hate the horrible hot summer weather!!  (That's not good given where I live!)  Love classical music ... hate hip-hop!  Love Cold Play, U2, Paul Kelly, Snow Patrol, Boz Scaggs, Linda Ronstadt ... hate Elvis, Michael Jackson, Enrique Iglesias, Whitney Houston, Dolly Parton and Pink Floyd!


Number 9.  I grew up in rather poor circumstances ... but I never really realised it at the time.  We only ever got one present for Xmas and it was usually something small.  I still the remember the Xmas that I received a standing blackboard though ... it was my dream to be a teacher one day and that particular Xmas present was just the most perfect ever!  .... Yes I have spent all my working life in front of a blackboard!  Not that you would be able to find the blackboard very easily in my early childhood classrooms over the years .... luckily I'm a short person because my classrooms were always full of things hanging from every nook and cranny available!  This is one of my very first classes way back in the 80's.

Number 10.  Despite the fact that I grew up in a town that was surrounded by seven beaches .... I have never lived right on the beach.  In fact, I prefer to live where I can see hills!  I had a view of hills from the modest house hubbie and I bought after we were married ... and I now live in amongst foothills.  Whenever I travel I find myself looking for hilly spots to visit.  During my last trip down south to see my boys and grandchildren I had the chance to travel to an area known as the Glasshouse Mountains ... I can spend hours just soaking up the view from a vantage point such as this .... there's something magnificent about such an outlook.

Whew .... well that's over!  Now it's time to mention blogs that I enjoy reading. There are SO many fantastic blogs that I follow, but in choosing for this meme, I'm going to fly the Aussie flag and I'm going to choose blogs that have relatively few followers.  

Most are not well-known blogs, but I think they deserve a mention.  I also couldn't keep the list to just 7 ... and that's another honest thing about me ... I like things to be a little ordered and tidy.  10 in one list and 7 in the other is not very tidy!   Lol ... now there's lots that can be read into that!

OK ... blogs I enjoy:

I simply love the stunning photography at David Kleinhert Photography  This is a photoblog that highlights some of Australia's great fauna.  The photos are incredible!

I love the quirky sense of humour and the great stories at Adventure Before Dementia   Diane tells her tale of migration to Australia and her life here since, including what's going on in her garden here in my home state.
I also really enjoy Diane's hubbie's blog called Our Brisbane and Surrounding Areas    He takes fantastic photos of our state's capital city, Brisbane and gives a fascinating insight into this particular corner of Queensland.  I'm going to count these two blogs as one!



Another little known blog  Frangipani Gardens  is written by Pitta who lives north of my city up on Cape York.  She has a very simple blog that shows the tropical plants growing in her little garden in the middle of the rainforest ... but she is very knowledgeable about her tropical plants.


In The Shade Of A Nut Tree   is a blog, written by Kathryn, documenting all the ups and downs as she creates her new garden.  She is a transplant from ole Mother England and is coming to grips with gardening downunder.


African Aussie  describes the development of her tropical garden and her vegie patch here in north Queensland, as she tries to use  permaculture principles as the basis for all gardening.


Then there is Mandy's blog mygardens.info      She shares what she has learned on her gardening journey since moving into the house and garden she presently lives in. She has developed a lovely garden and I really enjoy the insights she gained as she struggled to understand what works best at her place.


the burrow   is a blog from yet another fellow Queenslander (Yes I know I'm being rather parochial!).  She has a great sense of humour and although she posts infrequently, they always make a great read.


Then there is a wonderful blog from Joan Elizabeth called  Blue Mountains Journal   in which she shares beautiful photos taken around a most spectacular part of our country.  She also includes appropriate verse from all sorts of fabulous writers such as Walt Whitman, Walter de la Mare, Robert Frost ... just to name a few of the latest!


Now for a blog that some of you probably already know, but I really enjoy reading.  She is a die-hard rose lover and keen on creating a wonderful butterfly, bird and bee garden area as well as a little cottage garden full of our natives.  Heidi's blog A Year In A Gippsland Garden   is such great fun.


Finally I have to mention the fascinating blog of Titania.  Now this lady has several blogs ... all very different and well worth a read ... but I do love her gardening blog  Yesterday Today and Tomorrow In My Garden    In this blog she shares her amazing garden and her incredible knowledge of plants and gardening in general.  Such a wise woman whose wisdom obviously comes from many, many years of success in the garden.

 Right so there it is ... this is the LONGEST post I've ever written ... applause please!  I don't know how many have stayed to the very end, but thank you if you have!  I do hope you get a chance to visit these blogs from downunder even if it's just a quick visit to say hello.