The Thinking Bloggers Award.

At the end of November last year, when I decided to write the story of how we created a garden for wildlife, I wasn’t aware of the friendship that develops between blogging friends world-wide. Thalia (click on Thalia’s Musings), one of my friends, is from Bangalore in India. Amongst many other interests, she writes about her exciting travels to wildlife nature reserves, where tigers, leopards, elephants and exotic birds live. Each of her lyrical accounts is a sensory experience and told with the aplomb of all good story-tellers, where you can hardly wait for the next episode to unfurl.

Yesterday in my comments window, she very kindly announced that she had chosen me as one of her five nominations for the “Thinking Bloggers Award”. Since I am fairly new to blogging, I had never heard of this. I would like to thank Thalia for nominating me. Imagine my surprise, therefore, and the great honour I feel in being invited to nominate five blogs of real merit, which set me thinking.

To find out more about this award, click on the following link…

(http://www.thethinkingblog.com/2007/02/thinking-blogger-awards_11.html)

Here are my nominations.

1. Rebsie Fairholm.
(http://daughterofthesoil.blogspot.com/) Rebsie talks about having an interest in experimental horticulture. That extremely modest description does not begin to do justice to the expert knowledge which she shares in the content of her blog; nor does it mention her wonderful photography, nor her infectious enthusiasm for growing heritage vegetables. She has other strings to her bow, so to speak, as she is also an accomplished musician, planning on bringing out an album of traditional songs. I have learned so much from her blog and gladly recommend it to gardeners and music enthusiasts everywhere.

2. Gotta Garden.
(http://gottagarden.blogspot.com/) Gotta Garden is an enthusiastic gardener with a specialist interest in day-lilies. She is a great photographer as well, so everything is always amply illustrated with her beautiful photographs. Her blog is always busy and packed full of detailed information. I have learned so much about botanical gardens in the US from visiting her blog, and when she visits them her camera doesn’t miss a trick. When my younger son was small, he used to say, “Do you take a photo of every single flower in the garden, Mum?” Gotta Garden’s a bit like that. In her recent blog about daffodils, you can learn about so many different varieties. I really enjoy her blog, and urge you to pay a visit.

3. Petunia’s Garden.
(http://petunias-garden.blogspot.com/) Petunia’s Garden blog is mainly about an enthusiastic lady specialising in growing her own vegetables from seed, although she also grows beautiful flowers and has a very interesting herb bed too…and an interesting snake called Petunia, whom the garden is named after. Like the previous bloggers, she is also a great photographer, so all her new seedlings are there to see in minute detail. She is also interested in the birds and animals who visit her garden and makes hummingbird nectar to encourage these little beauties. From her blog I am learning tips on clever ways to grow salad crops I’ve never heard of, the habits of the various wildlife which visits her garden and, of course, I love her cat Emily.

4. Abraham Lincoln.
(http://brookvilledailyphoto.blogspot.com/) Abe is an enthusiastic and passionate photographer, who finds so much of interest from his back yard in Brookville, Ohio. The close-up detail in his photographs is truly amazing. Even his photo of a simple little sparrow shows such exquisite tones and shades in its feathers, that you will never again think of it as a ‘common sparrow’. Recently he had photos of a bee collecting pollen, and it is so detailed you can see single grains of pollen spilled onto the flower from the buds; and a spider spinning its cocoon around its prey of maggots before it devours them. As a fellow nature lover, I find his photographs of birds, insects, spiders and mammals heart-stoppingly beautiful, and recommend you to take a look for yourself.

5. Libby’s Blog.
(http://woodlandsworld.blogspot.com/) Libby is one of my newest blogging friends. She is a very enthusiastic gardener who wishes she had an allotment, but being short of space is not an obstacle to her, as her garden is growing upwards, with lots of climbers. However, she does have a greenhouse, with shelves stacked high, where plants jostle for space; and four happy chickens scratching away in their new bedding. If you wonder where she gets such beautiful plants, wonder no more, because she’s a dab hand at procuring bargains from Ebay. She also has a pond, where you can read all about the pesky heron who is stealing her fish. Pay Libby a visit and find out how to maximise the space in your garden.

It just remains to say I recommend these five blogs to everyone. Thank you, Thalia, for choosing me and giving me the opportunity to express my views on why these blogs are worthy choices and why they make me think.