Sweet Award, another Meme and...

...continuing phoktober.

Dear Rambler over at Virtual Ramblings gave me a Sweet Award - that's just so sweet of him! He said: "Absolute Vanilla does truly deserve this, the kind of issues she deals with, and the stands she takes, does make her really sweet." Thank you, Rambler - you too are very sweet and were given your award deservedly.


Now, in time honoured tradition, I have to pass the award on and so I do to Wanderlust Scarlett, Canterbury Soul, Jefferson Davis, Vesper and Marie.

And talking of Marie, she, the Deep Thinker, tagged me with a meme... It doesn't appear to have a name so it's probably best referred to as "Three things that enliven you more than blogging". Only three?!

"The rules (I just hate rules) are as follows - words in italics have been added by the one who hates rules... for anyone playing further, take the italicised words out - if you want... ;-) :

* 1. After your intro, copy/paste this line and the rules below it: The originator - one Damien Riley - wants to see how far it goes so please keep his link intact: http://rileycentral.net/

* 2. Encourage people to post with the incentive of a link (People need an incentive? I thought self motivation and interest usually did it! ;-) ) by including those who have passed it along here: Audrey, Celtic Angel, JM, Romance Writer, Deep Thinker.

* 3. Visit at least 3 on the list who’ve written and passed this meme. Leave them a comment. I so hate being told what to do. Rules, I'm sure, are half mankinds' problem...

And then you are supposed to, “pick three things that enrapture, consume, fascinate, or otherwise enliven you more than blogging. Then write a few lines about each to explain what the nonblog activity does for you, why and how.”

So, here goes...

1. Writing: For as long as I can remember I've loved writing. I wrote my first play when I was about eight - it was performed on rollerskates, thus predating Andrew Lloyd Webber's Starlight Express by a good few years! It was called Little Girl Lost and I charged the neighbourhood kids five cents to come and watch. The hero was played by the German boy from across the road - he only got the part because he could rollerskate! Needless to say the playwright was also the leading lady... So, what does writing do for me - it takes me to other worlds, other states of being and it makes my soul sing. How? Because I get to give flight to my imagination and I tap into a far greater creativity than my own - there are times when I'm writing a novel, that I feel I am merely a conduit for something so much bigger than me.

Where the words happen...

2. Photography: This is something I've only recently rediscovered when Significant Other bought me a shiny new Nikon. I'd been into photography as a student but eventually gave it up when the developing costs became too exhorbitant. Now digital has opened that wonderful world of creativity to me again. As to why I do it - again, it takes me to other places (Significant Other asssures me I go into a sort of fugue state when I get behind the lens), it enables me to see the world very differently, encourages me to be so much more observant and it allows me to indulge in a visual form of creativity.





3. Cooking: My grandfather was a cook, all my mother's family cook passionately, so I guess maybe this passion is in the blood. Again, for me it's about creativity. Cooking is not a chore, it's an culinary adventure. When I was first married all I could cook was good old spaghetti bolognese. Within a year or two I was doing choux pastry, souffles and dinner parties. I suppose it never occurred to me to be afraid in the kitchen or to think something might go wrong (though I have had one spectacular blunder involving a dinner party, gelatine and raspberry mousse...). I think there is also something about food that has been prepared with love and joy that simply makes it taste that much better. Today, health problems preclude all sorts of things from my diet but it doesn't stop me from experimenting and trying new things - if anything, cooking simply but tastily creates more of a challenge. And while I have shelves of cookery books (my preferences lean towards Italian and French country cooking), I now read them for ideas and them make up my own recipes - like my grandfather, I have learned to "cook by ear". As for the why, I like to know exactly what I'm eating, I enjoy my own food, I love it that others enjoy it too and, above all, I love the art of creation in still another form!

Berry pavlova

Now, I tag Wanderlust Scarlett and Verilion.

Whale Songs

Continuing the phoktober theme...

Last week I promised I'd try to get some whale shots... They're not brilliant and now the shopping list has been lengthened to include a powerful zoom lens...

Each year, from June to November, the southern right whale comes to our shores. In the protected bays along the southern coast hundreds of whales mate and calve. Given the amount of splashing, bellowing and heavy breathing that was going on when I took these shots I think we can take a pretty educated guess that there was some rumpy pumpy taking place..

Significant Other has always said I call the whales and this time I believed him. We have never seen the whales come this close to the rocky shoreline before.

What I find so utterly tragic is that people are willing to hunt these magnificent animals - invariably using grenade-tipped harpoons which explode inside the animals. Increasingly the ban on whale hunting, which has been in force for 20 years, is coming under pressure with 33 nations supporting whale hunting and only 32 against it. However, in June this year the International Whaling Commission upheld an indefinite moratorium on commercial whaling by IWC members that had been in effect since 1986. Despite this, the decision will have no practical effect on the whale hunting now conducted by Japan, Norway, Iceland, and certain other countries. For more information on this, please see here and, for an excellent article on the subject of whale hunting go here.

I reach out

and you touch me

with my heart in yours

I call

and you answer me

with your soul

this is whale speak

and I know

Song of joy

my heart to yours

as you play

rolling in the waves

To listen to the sounds of whales, go here, and to read more about the southern right whale, go here.

Reflections... and smile awards

Continuing the Phoktober theme... This series of shots was taken a while back when I was playing with light reflected through coloured glass objects onto a white surface. What I've done here is to take the reflected section from each shot without any sign of the real object of the reflection.

What we see is not
What we don't see may well be
Things are seldom what they seem

Look beyond
Between the glimmers of light
The magic resides within

Now see if you can work out which shot above came from which shot below!

Reflections in light
time and space

cease to be

:-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-) :-)

And the good and fun news of the day is that lovely Bonnie over at Words from a Wordsmith has given me a "You make me smile, award"! Thank you, Bonnie! Your words make me smile too!

Made by Susan of Patchwork Reflections, she said, "Comments make me smile! So all of you who were nice enough to comment here are officially presented with the 'you make me smile' award! Congratulations!" On her blog she added this verse:

Smiling is infectious,
U can catch it like the flu.
Someone smiled at me today,
And I started smiling too,
Now I am passing it on to you!

So now I'm passing on the smile award to:

Verilion who's as daft as a brush - you have to know her to know...
Vesper - who is a kindred spirit and brings a smile to my heart.
John - who ends every comment with a smile which you know is heartfelt.
Baino - who has a wicked sense of humour
and Kyklops - who had me in stitches with his comment on my mushroom post!

You know what I hate about these awards - you're only supposed to be able to pass them on to five people - I think that's so unfair - I want to give awards to all of you - especially this one, because in some way, each of you brings a smile to my face! So go on, consider yourself awarded and SMILE!

Magic Mushrooms and...

On October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind - the environment. Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic. The idea is to get everyone talking towards a better future. Follow the link and take a look.

Frankly, I have no idea at this stage what I'll post about but for now let's get on with things Phoktoberish and enjoy a feast of mushrooms. Okay, so I stand corrected, funghi... And they do after all form a part of our environment. Enjoy, but don't try to eat or smoke the pictures, okay?!



















Tomorrow, I'm going off to see if I can find the whales for you to admire... Watch this space...