We have winners!
A random number generator selected comments numbers 44 and 28. That means congratulations are in order for Donna & Raul.
I will contact you both soon via e-mail to request your snail-mail addresses.
Once again, thank you all for visiting and commenting on my blogaversary post. The celebration was just beautiful, and so encouraging and joyful for me. Who could ever deserve such an outpouring of support and such wonderful blog-friends? It’s humbling — and wonderful.
Beautyberry bush, one of the winners in the wildlife garden, for sure.
Even though I could not give you each a packet of my custom stationery, I believe you are all deserving of a gift from me — for your support and friendship, for your kind comments and suggestions, and for just being you. The best I could do is right over there in the sidebar. Clicking the square marked “Soul Food” will take you there, with my sincere appreciation.
And now, while we’re discussing winnings and gifts, I will officially accept The Beautiful Blogger Award, given to me way back in late spring by the lovely Kathy Johnson over at Catching Happiness. I’m so touched by this award — especially because of what Kathy said when she presented it.
You’re too kind, Kathy.
(But I loved every word!)
The rules for acceptance of this award are twofold. First, I need to tell you 10 random facts you probably don’t already know about moi.
Hmmm… this gets harder the longer I blog. Still, here goes:
1. I have a Magic 8 ball in my house, and I sometimes consult it, for fun. F. wanted to cut it open to see what was inside, but settled for finding the detailed report of the guy who already did that, and posted it all on the internet.
2. My cats’ full proper names are Leo Chapo and Bootemius Flip-Flip Wickham-Watson. (No joke.)
3. I make an incredible carrot cake, from a recipe passed on to me years ago by my first boss out of college, who just happened to be a sweet, gracious hostess and a magnificent Southern cook in addition to her considerable professional credentials. The final result is three layers high and requires a double batch of buttercream icing with walnuts. Even people who are “meh” about carrot cake fall into raptures at first bite.
4. I wrote my first story at age 6. (It was a tragedy.) I announced to the world at large that I planned to be a writer when I was 9. My magnum opus at that point was an 11-page ghost story which got points taken off for being too long, violating the parameters of the assignment, being turned in late, sprawling into the margins, and not having an ending yet.
Not much changes, I guess.
5. The way the gardening gene turned on at age 18: I fell in love with roses, and promptly wiped out my pitiful college-student savings account purchasing 40 (yes, you read that right) hybrid tea, antique, and David Austen English roses which I planted in my parents’ yard in the course of one spring weekend. Obsession is probably the word you’re looking for here.
(For fellow rosarians, the Austen roses are still going strong, almost two decades later, with minimal intervention by my parents.)
6. I speak two languages.
In fact, a few years ago, I would have confidently told you I’d achieved near-native fluency in French. Opportunities to speak French are rather thin on the ground here, however, so I was thinking I’d have to seriously downgrade my skill designation pretty soon. But then I ran into a Haitian family at my optometrist’s office, desperate to be understood, and after interpreting for them and the receptionist and the doctor, felt like I might not have lost my chops yet.
Shortly thereafter, I ran into a bewildered Frenchman at a gas station in metro Atlanta. After I’d cleared up the confusion at the pump, we chatted a bit, and he and his girlfriend expressed shock that I was not, in fact, French. I was relieved. Now that I am attempting to learn F.’s native language, I am in awe of the capacity for memorization and mimicry that I had in my teens and early 20s, and the possibility of true fluency in a third language appears more and more like a mirage.
7. I daydream of learning to sew. Oh, and learning to knit so that I can make socks. Even though I don’t really like wearing socks. Somehow I’m convinced that if I, myself, make them out of super soft baby alpaca yarn, I will change my mind. Also, it would be really cool to make nice socks for loved ones who do appreciate nice socks, like F., and my sister, and my mom.
8. I spent a weekend homeless in Paris at age 16. It was amazing and scary and awesome and brutal and hilarious, and if I ever write a memoir, that experience will be in there.
9. Part of me is convinced that nowhere on Earth is as beautiful as North Georgia. But I’m also intensely curious about the Pacific Northwest and would like to experience more of this region where I was born and lived the first two months of my life. And I also want to one day return to the Louisiana Bayou and to the American Southwest, two places where the land had an incredible mystical pull for me. Québec (in summer) and the French countryside were pretty awesome, too. [Note: Québec in winter made me want to curl up into a little ball and die.]
Maybe I just have the capacity to love lots of places — as long as the temperatures there are not 40 below zero with your breath freezing an ice patch on the scarf that covers half your face. That’s just asking too much of a Southern girl.
10. I have a real soft spot for a particular weed: Queen Anne’s Lace, or Daucus carota, wild carrot.
It’s a nostalgia thing. We go way back.
And now I get to pass this award on to four blogs whose authors I consider beautiful. Honestly, this part of the process is very difficult for me because I consider so many bloggers to be beautiful souls, and I am continually amazed by the creativity and beauty that I find in the blog-o-sphere.
Nonetheless, these four stand out for me as superb examples of beauty, inspiration, and wonder. Their authors are generous souls who have created places of peace, love, and joy that I look forward to visiting every time.
Mesmerising Moments: because the world is full of wonder
Necessary Room: Enter with a happy heart…
Unfolding Your Path to Joy: optimistic inspirational resources for a joy-filled life
Vie Boheme: Art and Photography from the Gaia Path
You will not regret a visit to any of these gems of the internet. Each one is definitely a winner in my book.
Thanks for hanging out in the winners’ circle today.
Namasté, y’all.
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