KREATIV BLOGGER AWARD

I was humbled and touched to receive this award from Andrea at Arise2write http://arise2write.blogspot.com/2009/06/kreativ-blogger-award.html. Having a blog has opened up a whole world of awareness for me with regard to the many strong and faithful Catholics in the world living out their vocations day by day. I feel privileged to 'know' them - and share faith with them. I am required to nominate 7 other bloggers for this award and they are supposed to nominate 7 others. (Be sure to leave a comment on their blog about the award.) After they accept the award they are then asked to write a list of 7 things that their blog readers may not already know about them.

1)When deciding what profession I wished to enter I seriously considered publishing but the call to be a teacher was very strong and I followed that path instead. However, I love literature and the smell of bookshops always draws me in. I can get lost in a bookshop in the morning and not reappear until the afternoon. I think it started when I was little and my Mum would let me stay in Hatchards bookshop while she went shopping next door. I would spend hours sitting in there reading. All the girls who worked there used to know me.

2) I can take no credit for the poems I have written in my life. For what they are worth, they have come to me as gifts and I have felt them like fluttering wings. Until I had put them on this blog I can think of only two other people who had read them and I am so grateful for peoples' kindness and generosity when they have read them here. Nothing better summarises my feeling than a quotation from the Czech poet JAROSLAV SEIFERT who wrote

"Poetry is with us from the start.
Like loving, like hunger, like the plague, like war.
At times my verses were embarrassingly foolish.

But I make no excuse.

I believe that seeking beautiful words is better than killing and murdering."

Writing has been like a gift given to me and I am so grateful to have received it.

3)I have a penchant for braking various bones. I have thus far fractured a finger once, my arm three times and my ankle once. Nice.

4)I used to LOVE to act. Right up until the end of University I participated in all sorts of different productions but right now I can't imagine anything worse than being somebody else on stage. I have become what I like to call confidently shy about these things and I feel like I don't want the spotlight anymore - when I was a kid it gave me a real boost. I had a great time and it let me explore all sorts of different things. It also let me wander round as a Victorian for while - I really liked the elegance- especially the long glov.es.

Also, I got to travel- visiting Vancouver while with a touring production. It was a beautiful place.

4) I am terrible at maths - I managed my GCSE but after that I ditched it with delight and haven't looked back since. I have a lot of admiration for people who are great with numbers. My brother is an engineer and he can work out any mathematical problem - its fascinating! I just see a bundle of numbers, panic and run for the hills!

5) I have a passion for 16th century history. I love to wander round monastic ruins and find places where the old relics of Catholic England have been stored. There is something sad and strangely beautiful about the whole thing. I mourn for the lost Catholics of England and feel as though I could reach out and touch the last monks and nuns who walked the stony corridors of great buildings. The picture below shows a pair of 12th century Rosary beads, a crucifix and alter piece from a monastery that was dissolved on a Scottish island.

6) My dog is called Fleur - this is her wearing a pumpkin hat - I don't normally put her in hats but somebody bought it for (strange I know but what can I say?) so I thought I better take a picture of her with it on. She looks very unimpressed:

7) I am going to write a whole post on number seven so stay tuned - it is linked to another post and I need a little time to put it together.

SEVEN NOMINEES

I always feel sad with these things that I can't give them to more people but these are some blogs that I really enjoy

1) A Catholic Mom in Minnesota

http://mnmomtwofour.blogspot.com/

2) A Catholic Journey

http://romancatholicjourney.blogspot.com/

3) Catholic and Loving it!

http://www.lovingit.co.uk/

4) The Pondering Catholic

http://theponderingcatholic.blogspot.com/

5) Thoughts on Grace

http://colleenspiro.blogspot.com/

6)Mum to 12...Now My Bakers Dozen

http://mum2twelve.blogspot.com/

7) Aussie Coffee Shop

http://http//aussiecoffeeshop.blogspot.com/