Therefore all seasons shall be sweet to thee,
Whether summer clothe the general earth
With greeness, or the redbreast sit and sing
Betwixt the tufts of snow on the bare branch
Of mossy apple-tree, while the nigh thatch
Smokes in the sun-thaw; whether the eave-drops fall
Heard only in the trances of the blast,
Or if the secret ministry of frost
Shall hang them up in silent icicles,
Quietly shining to the quiet Moon.



Monday, April 09, 2007

The Thinking Blogger Award



I hope everyone had a Happy Easter,we had family here yesterday, this is Gabriel with his Uncle Matt....


...and his Aunty Jules.


I made my daily call at Rel's blog 'under the microscope' and found to my surprise and delight that he has chosen me for one of his Thinking Blogger awards. In my turn I have chosen the following five blogs for the award.

1. Cate at Beyond The Fields We Know is an incredibly talented photographer and writes prose that at times is almost lyrical, mostly she is writing about the wildlife and natural world in the area of eastern Ontario where she lives. Cate, more than anyone else, makes me think about the subjects she writes about. Do go and visit her, you won't be disappointed.

2. Val at stepping stones of truth is a recent addition to my favourite blogs, she lives in Dorset in the UK and her blog is full of interesting things -gardening, travel to wonderful places like Kyoto in Japan,Sinai,Iona and a little closer to home for her, Glastonbury. She does brave things like abseiling down the Hardy Monument too! It'a blog full of interest and beautiful photographs.

3. Kate at kate smudges in earth paint and life is a musician, gardener and artist who always has something interesting to say especially on the subject of gardening and famous gardeners and planthunters. There are plenty of other gems in there too.

4. MariNanci at smilnsigh has a visually beautiful blog especially if, like me, you happen to love cottages and cottage gardens. There are pictures I'd love to just step into and others that I could gaze on with pleasure for considerable amounts of time. The archives are well worth looking through too.

5. Tash at VintagePretty is the young lady who inspired me to start my own blog, she is a keen cook and grows her own vegatables and knits and crochets. Her site has some beautiful photographs and the archives contain a myriad wonderful recipes and there are some thoughtful essays on ecology and similar themes.

If any of the five ladies mentioned above wish to make their own awards then
1. Write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think - and I hope you are better at it than I am!

2. Link to this post so that people can find their way back to the origin of the meme

3. Display the Thinking Blogger Award

The photo at the beginning of this post is of the Village Green at Astbury in Cheshire. I thought the daffodils looked wonderful.

I've decided to go ahead and publish this as it is and if my husband ever gets round to helping me then I'll add the Thinking Blogger logo and add proper links to the sites I've chosen, something else that I don't appear to be able to manage. I've used the link icon but although it appears when I'm writing nothing happens when I preview it. If only I knew what I was doing :( Right now I'm thinking that anything is better than nothing! I'll try to edit it properly asap.

9 comments:

Val said...

I am so honoured to be chosen by you, gosh! And even more honoured to be mentioned in the same breath as the beautiful Beyond the Fields We Know by the talented Cate.

The logo shows perfectly, now lets see if I can manage it when its my turn!

A deep bow to you

Gill said...

Congratulations Rowan. I think this is such a nice honour, this award, let's us know we are cherished by those in the blogging community. I love your phots of the baby too.

Janet said...

Congratulations on the award, and I see you got the logo on your sidebar.

The photos of Gabriel are so cute.

Ragged Roses said...

Congratulations Rowan! I have been nominated too and was going to nominate you - would you like 2 awards? I wasn't sure whether I was going to mention it on my blog but it feels a bit like breaking a chain ... Hope you had a wonderful Easter.
Kim x

Rowan said...

Hello Ragged Roses, I'm very flattered that you were thinking of nominating me for the Thinking Blogger Award but don't feel you have to do any nominations of your own. That's why I tried to make it clear that following up with your own nominations is optional as far as I'm concerned. This sort of thing isn't everyone's cup of tea.Actually I found it very hard to do and it took me all week! And I still haven't managed the links - they are all on my sidebar though so that will have to do:)

Anonymous said...

Wow, thanks ever so much for nominating me - I don't think I've been nominated for something before. I'm really glad that my blog inspired you to get blogging too :) If at least one person finds my blog interesting, funny and useful then I'll be a happy gal!

PAT said...

Rowan, thanks so much for stopping by and leaving a lovely comment.

I believe, you would love that trip down the coast of the Carolinas. We started our trip here in St Louis. We drove to Colonial Williamsburg, VA and stayed a few days. We then drove down the Outer Banks, of North Carolina. That got us away from the big highway. It was wonderful. We stayed a few days in Charleston SC before returning home via another route. Going in early spring, we didn't have the warm temps and humidity. If you think you might make the trip, that's the time of year I would recommend. I've not been to Savannah, but that's on my list of things to do!

Beautiful photos of Gabriel. My granddaughter's name is Gabriella!!

Have a wonderful weekend
Pat
Back Porch Musings

smilnsigh said...

Oh Rowan, congratulations to you, on this!!!

But as for myself, I don't know what to say. I never consider myself a thinking blogger. Really, I just mostly put up pretty pictures. I love to view them elsewhere and so, I put some up too. For anyone else who happens to need/enjoy them.

I don't knit or do crafting and I don't even do much gardening. My husband is the one who grows pretty flowers around here. I really, really, really don't know what to do. Is it possible to say Thank you but no Thank you, without seeming horrid??? You are way too sweet, for me to ever even think of being horrid to you.

If we were closer, I _could_ show you how to do clickable links, in your entries though. {Yeaa, one thing I have mastered!} But we aren't close by and things like this, work best at close range. Email is not the best medium for such. -sigh-

I appreciate your gesture. But I just don't feel eligible to be in the company of Thinking Bloggers.

Hugs, hugs, hugs to you,
Mari-Nanci

kate said...

You deserve to be nominated for this award! I love your blog - adorable photos of Gabriel. What a sweetheart.

Thank you too for nominating me for an award and for your lovely words about my blog. I do seem to enjoy reading about plant hunters!