Happy 101

Imagine my surprise when I opened my blog dashboard this morning and found this Happy 101 Award! I have been so remiss in tending my blog and suffering from blog writer's block; therefore I was amazed to receive this award from fickleinpink,the dark side in Calamba City, Laguna, Philippines. It just continues to amaze me how connected we all are! Thank you so much, Miss Fickle!

So my turn to make somebody smile today....

All you have to do is:

1. Copy and paste the award on your blog.

2. List who gave the award to you and use a link to her blog (or hyperlink).

3. List 10 things that make you happy.

4. Pass the award on to other bloggers and visit their blog to let them know!

Ten things that make me happy:

1. The color purple (so I shall use purple letters).
2. The G-man (my husband 'though he is not a thing).
3. Gertie Girl, my11 year old rat terrier
   
4. Animals (dogs & horses in particular, seeing wild animals in general), bird watching & feeding the wild ones in our backyard
5. Coffee... the smell & taste especially the first 2 or 3 cups in the morning
   
6. Travel
7. Golf (frustrating though it is)
   
8. Photograph
9. Autumn and early spring
10. Finding a real connection with people I meet.

And now to pass on this sweet award which I hope will make its recipients happy!

Robert Frost's Banjo - music, photos, history
An Explorer's View of Life - always insightful & often funny
What I Should Have Said - great humor & a peek into life of an educator
stuff from ellen's head - art, philosophy, fun
Letters from Usedom - a great look at living in Germany

madtexter - a great hoot of a blog, always funny
the golden fish - beautiful poetry & photos
My castle in Spain - a glimpse at life in Spain
Montanagirl - beautiful wildlife photos
a hazy moon - a peek into life along an Australian river

I hope you will visit each & enjoy your visits as much as I do!

Special Awards

On Sunday I received these two awards from Val at monkeys on the roof and I am pleased to pass along these awards to the wonderful people who write the blogs listed below. I am grateful for each of you.


The Lemonade Award and the Golden Heart Award go to ten blogs with attitude and gratitude and heart... Thank you all for your wonderful contributions. Each of you make a difference in the lives of those who read your blogs.

• The Gold Puppy
• Letters from Usedom
• Sixtyfivewhatnow
• A Cuban in London
• Absolute Vanilla... and Atyllah
• A Hazy Moon
• Circling My Head
• Life at Willow Manor
• 100 Words from Dublin
• The Soaring Impulse
  

Palabras Como Rosas Award

Palabras Como Rosas Award

Rosaria at sixtyfivewhatnow presented me with this wonderful award a few weeks ago. The award is for words that like roses, leave a wonderful perfume, lingering for a while. Isn't that a lovely definition of Palabras Como Rosas? In turn I am to choose several blogger friends whose words leave that feeling with me. This is a difficult task because there are so many lovely writers whose blogs I visit and enjoy. I decided to take a look at blogs by subject matter:

Music, Poetry & History- John Hayes at Robert Frost's Banjo
Visual tours in art & nature - Delwyn at A Hazy Moon
Discussions of books & movies - "Willow" at Life at Willow Manor
Words of wisdom - Angela at Letters from Usedom
Perspective from abroad - A Cuban in London

2009 Friendly Blogger Award

Thank you Lola at Aglio, Olio & Peperoncino (Personal Thoughts On All Things Tasty).

I would like to extend this to my blogger friends who drop by on an almost daily basis. You have been incredibly supportive & make me want to continue to visit your sites and try to emmulate your good form. For The Seeker, John (the banjo player), Rosaria (the philosopher), Angela (the teacher), Dave (the intellectual), my Cuban friend (the artist), Renee (the other philosopher), Delwyn (the instructor), Natalie (the mother), Siobhan (the disciplined writer), Reya (the curious one), and others who visit but may not have a blog of their own (like my husband). Please accept this award to post (although posting is not a necessity) or to just know it comes from the heart.

One Lovely Blog Award

Thank you Lola at Aglio, Olio & Peperoncino for the award.

This award should be passed on to fifteen (count them 15!) good looking new blogs. I may play fast & loose with the "new" part, but these are blogs I enjoy. Now this may take some time and is a very difficult choice to make. So let's look for beautiful blogs. Perhaps background, music, photographs or other artwork and wonderful thoughts will be shown. I have chosen these which reflect my eclectic taste. Do pay them a visit and see for yourself; I hope you enjoy these blogs as much as I do:

Painting-Printmaking History- Delwyn at A Hazy Moon
Photography - A Little Off Kilter
Pretty blog - Angela Recada - Art, Life, Stories
Jennifer - At the Table in My Sunroom
Bella - Bella Sinclair Doodlespot
Beautiful paintings, Ces - Ces and Her Dishes
The lovely thoughts & photos of "Willow" - Life at Willow Manor
Beautiful background & photograph - Liz - CherokeeFox
Cool headliner & my kind of photographs - Lala - My Castle in Spain
Fashion statements! - The Seeker at Searching te Inner Me
More on Style & Photography Streetside - The Sartorialist
Natalie at Musings from the Deep
Music & Insight - A Cuban in London
Just as it says & the S. F. Bay changes daily - Louis - San Francisco Bay Daily Photo
Seeing Paris through Eric's eyes - Eric - Paris Daily Photo

Pay It Forward - for Dave at Pics & Poems

There are so many wonderful bloggers who make such incredible observations that enhance my life and the lives of others every day. I would like to recognize one of those special individuals with the "Pay It Forward" Award. I select Dave at Pics and Poems as the recipient. Dave presents thought provoking posts as he did in the Saturday 4.25.09 post and discussion "Seven Jewish Children" and in the Monday 4.27.09 post titled "Facing It". Thank you Dave for your wonderful blog. I hope others will visit you & take away much from their reading of your words.

For Delwyn

For Delwyn,

because you provide us with lovely images and beautifully written prose & poetry. You pass on to each of us who reads your blog the serene spirit that seems to penetrate deep into your bones & marrow. Visit Delwyn at "a hazy moon" to be entertained, enlightened, and engaged by her witty words and insightful thoughts.

P.S. I'm off for a couple of days of golf--see you Thursday!

Pay It Forward - Renee always does!

Renee's Award

There are so many wonderful bloggers who make such incrediblel observations that enhance my life and the lives of others every day. I would like to recognize one of those special individuals with the "Pay It Forward" Award. I select Renee at Circling My Head as the recipient. Renee is always giving to each of us and I want to recognize her for the insightful thoughts that she posts. Even when she is not writing she is entertaining and enlightening us with her lovely selection of artwork. Renee's posts are always inspiring and thought provoking. Thank you Renee for your wonderful blog.

"Best Blog Thinker Award" - Thank you LakeViewer

Best Blog Thinker Award

After a night of Academy Awards I thought I was "awarded out", but today I received an award from Lakeviewer at sixtyfivewhatnow. It is the Best Blog Thinker Award! Imagine that.
Thank you so much for bestowing this award on me ... a Thinker, wow!

"This award acknowledges the values that every Blogger displays in their effort to transmit cultural, ethical, literary, and personal values with each message they write. Awards like this have been created with the intention of promoting community among Bloggers. It’s a way to show appreciation and gratitude for work that adds value to the Web.”

It is very difficult to pare down to 5 bloggers whom I feel "transmit cultural, ethical, literary, and personal values" in their messages. I hope you will visit each of these folks and find them as interesting and poignant as I do. The following are my choices:
1. Greg for his ethical and personal values at Bishop Greg Rickel
2. Clay for his literary contributions at M. IV
3. Tonya for her artistry at Lazy Gal Quilting
4. Reya for her photographs, thought provoking and ethical contributions at The Gold Puppy
5. Mark for his humor and storytelling abilities at The Bagman & Butler Chronicles.

For the recipients if you wish to show this award please copy & save the award photo on your desktop and then upload it to your website by going to the layout section and selecting Gadget ... then select the Picture gadget and upload your Award from the Image (upload from your computer) section. Your Award will continue to be shown on your computer. You may also upload the Award for your post and also copy and paste the meaning of your Award into your post. (Hope these instructions are understandable ... you may have to experiment a few time to get it right. See the teacher in me is coming out.)

Superior Scribbler Award - Thank You, Banjo Man

Thank you Robert Frost's Banjo for the Superior Scribbler Award. I am very happy to be the recipient of this award.

Here are the rules:

1. Name five other Superior Scribblers to receive this award.
2. Link to the author and name of the blog that gave you the award.
3. Display the award on your blog with this LINK which explains the award.
4. Click on the award at the bottom of the link and add your name to the bottom of the list.
5. Post the rules.

The five I picked, in no special order, by blog are:
The Gold Puppy, Letters from Usedom, The Times of Miranda, M. IV, and sixtyfivewhatnow.

These are five blogs that I check daily and always enjoy reading.

My first check-in for the day is with The Gold Puppy because I know that by the time I get to my computer (at about 8:00 AM) Reyna's post will already be there with some fabulous photographs.

Angela (Letters from Usedom) & Miranda (The Times of Miranda) provide me with wonderful real-life stories of either themselves or people with whom they have come in contact. I mention these two together because Angela is Miranda's aunt. Angela is from Germany and Miranda from Tanzania; both are outside my realm.

Then there is Clay from M. IV who has fabulous stories & comments along with wonderful artistic ability. It is a pleasure to peek in on M. IV.

Last, but not least, is Rosaria at sixtyfivewhatnow who keeps me attune to the need for us all to stay involved even after retirement. At 60-something we don't have to stop being involved in community life just because we are no longer receiving a pay check. Now is the time to volunteer.

There are many other blogs that I check in on, some on a daily basis, some every few days, and a couple that I know will only post every week or two or even monthly. A few of these are Lazy Gal Quilting, Bishop Greg Rickel, Musings from the Deep, Deus Ex Malcontent, Fire Byrd, Circling My Head, and The Reluctant Memsahib. All are extremely worthy and I relish visiting all these and more.

Thank you again Banjo Man for the award.