Sunday 28 October 2012

A blog award!

How fab is this! There are a few award-things going around at the moment, and - yippee - Jacqueline Pye (her wonderful blog is here) had nominated me for the Addictive Blog Award!



Thank you so much, Jacqueline - and I hope all my lovely followers will drop by your blog (and if you follow her links you'll find she does some great cooking stuff too!)

The idea, before nominating others, is to witter a bit about why I blog. To begin with, it was to build a platform - I mean, that's what writers are meant to do, isn't it? And I was in the process of self-publishing Over the Hill, so it was interesting (well, I was interested) to witter about the whole process - to share my general ignorance, and learn from anyone passing by who was willing to share his or her wisdom.

I've carried on - like I've carried on travelling - because it's fun. I break the rule that suggests I should be consistent in what I write about, that the blog should be focussed. No doubt the rule-writers are right, and I'd have a bigger following if I stuck to one topic, more or less. Instead I have a post about the silly song my washing machine makes alongside thoughts on ebooks, and tigers. But I make no apology - for now I blog for fun. And if it stops being fun, then I shall stop doing it.

In response to this wonderful award, I must (well, I won't turn into a frog if I don't, but it's part of the game) nominate five other blogs. This has been hard - there are a lot of bookie links and chain-tagging blogs around at the moment, so wanted you to meet people you might not stumble across in the normal course of things. And so here I've tried to introduce you to some people who write about the world around them, the minutiae that they notice, the people they meet - without passing judgement. They all make me smile:

4 Kids, 20 Suitcases and a beagle is such fun - the writer is Australian, living in Qatar, and she writes with great wit and insight.
Thinking of the days is just that - a gentle account of life with a puppy, and garden. And it has some great photos!
Rosalind Adam is writing in the rain - she writes about writing, and about anything that takes her fancy.  Which is probably why I love her blog!
The English Travel Writer - Jenny Woolf writes about travelling. And she observes everything - from doorways to ducks.
Finally, Is Anyone There? Which has bits about holidays, and bits about being at home, and bits about reading - you get the picture.


And now I'm off to celebrate - cake, anyone?

12 comments:

  1. Thank you Jo! I am very honoured. I will look at the other blogs, now - they're all new to me.

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  2. Thank you Jo what a lovely thing to wake up to on a Monday morning. You have given me something to write about.

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  3. Grr - can you see the picture of this award, or have you got a little blue question mark? I've loaded it so many times, and blogger keeps eating it. Apologies to everyone (yes, I shall carry on blaming blogger, it can't be anything I'm doing wrong, can it ...?)

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  4. A lovely idea, Jo! and congratulations. Sadly, I can't see the picture, but I get it - the picture, that is :)) I'll definitely go take a looksee at the others. And by the way, I agree about not being too focused. I like the eclectic nature of your blog very much, and Rosalind's too. I think I would get bored if I only write about writing all the time.

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  5. I have went from iphone to ipad and now to pc and can't see picture,I thought it was me lol.

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  6. Bloody picture - if you follow the link to Jacqueline's blog, you can see it. Tho I will try again ...

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  7. It's there now ... will it still be there tomorrow ...

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  8. I love Rosalind's blog as well. Not familiar with the others, will go check them out!

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  9. Thanks so much Jo for the award! Quite chuffed!
    Like you I don't write about just one thing...it's what interests me or is going on at the time....

    I know Ros's blog of course...as I know her in a real life not jsut online...but when today is over (such a busy working week so far!), I'm going to sit down with a glass of wine (or may be two )and allow myself the luxury of reading all of your recommendations.

    Thanks again....

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  10. I've only just seen this. Sorry for my tardiness, Jo, and thank you loads for the award. My excuse is that I'm still trying to get back into the real world after our lovely holiday in Italy. Anyway, I shall have a think about my reasons for blogging and respond accordingly. I suspect they'll be similar to yours (without all the scary Tigerish stuff) as I too now do it because I enjoy it.

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  11. Hi I have had the pleasure of discovering your blog via Anne from 'Is anyone there'. She nominated for The Addicted Blogger Award which I'm a bit late in dealing with but I will be doing my post soon. It though I really should check out who else got this, so hear I am.

    You blog is great and I shall definitely be exploring more of it.

    Kate

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    1. You have better things to do at the moment than chasing blogs. I so hope you and your travellers are together again very soon - this will feel like the longest six weeks of your life. But I'm just one of many followers cheering you on.

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