Liebster Award!

I opened the comments section of my blog yesterday afternoon and discovered that I'd been nominated for a Liebster award by Anna of Flutter & Hum.  I was thrown.  I have an awkward relationship with awards.  On the one hand, I'm flattered to no end but, on the other, I'm flustered.  As I do with any compliment I receive, my immediate inclination is to convey my unworthiness to receive it.  You like my shirt?  "It's old and was a gift from someone with better taste."  You're impressed with my garden?  "You should see my neighbor's garden - she has done a bang-up job on hers."  I've won awards at intervals during the course of my life, some academic and some career-related, but I've never been able to simply accept them without some kind of disclaimer.  The funny thing is, just the other day, I was thinking that, at this point in my life, I should be able to accept compliments with grace instead of denials.  I don't generally make new year's resolutions but, if I were to, this would have been on my list.  So, 3 days into the new year Anna gives me an unintended push to make good on my unspoken admonition to myself.  Thanks, Anna, for the kick in the behind, as well as the recognition!

For those of you unfamiliar with the Liebster Award, as I was before this, it has been described as an on-line chain letter with some rules.   The rules vary somewhat but, in this case, in accepting, I've agreed to:

• Link back to Anna's blog;
• Answer 11 questions she outlined in her award post; and
• Nominate 5 other bloggers to receive the award, continuing the cycle. 

With another word of thanks to Anna, both for reading my blog and for recognizing it with her nomination, here are my answers to her questions:

1) Why do you blog?  Originally, my blog served as a distraction.  It gave me temporary relief from the stresses of family events by shifting my focus to the pleasure I felt working in my garden.  Over time, it became a way of tracking changes in the garden and connecting with others who had similar interests.  It's the experience of community associated with blogging that keeps me posting now.

2) What makes you happy?  Right now, rain!!!  

3) If you could live anywhere, where would you live?  There's a lot of the country - and the world - that I haven't seen yet but, based on my experience to date, I'd live in the Pacific Northwest.

4) If you had to lose one of your senses - which would it be?  Hearing, vision, touch, smell or taste?  Taste.  It would offer a benefit of sorts by eliminating any reason to eat sugars and starches and all the other things that aren't good for me.

5) What does your perfect day look like?  Blue skies (following a night of rain), cool temperatures, good friends, and a trip to one of my favorite nurseries, preferably with one of my friends doing the driving.

6) If you had to pick only one cuisine to eat for the rest of your life, which one would you choose, and why?  Chinese - it includes lots of vegetables but everything is tasty.

7) What book are you reading right now?  I usually have more than one book going in different formats.  I just finished "Under the Spell of Succulents" by Jeff Moore in soft-cover and started "Practical Botany for Gardeners" by Geoff Hodge in hard-cover.  I'm listening to "Dust" by Martha Grimes on a USB drive in my car and I'm reading "The Last Time I was Me" by Cathy Lamb on my iPad.

8) Which is your favorite movie? "Ghostbusters" (the original)

9) Do you have a favorite color and if so - which?  Yellow is my favorite color, with green and blue close seconds.

10) Which is your favorite place to visit?  I haven't had an opportunity to travel much lately but a trip to Carmel and Monterey in California is my favorite get-away.

11) Name five famous people (dead or alive) that you would love to invite to a dinner party at your house.  That's a tough one!  I was tempted to select a literary or garden-focused group but as a variety of views can create the most lively discussions, I'll go with: Jon Stewart, Beth Chatto, Dan Hinkley, Louise Penny, and Richard Feynman.

Selecting 5 blogs to nominate is, by far, the hardest part of accepting this nomination.  There are so many blogs I read regularly and love.  Some of those bloggers have already received this award or have declared themselves "award free" and others have been blogging for an extended period.  The guideline for selection is under 1000 followers but, in many cases, I wasn't able to determine the number of followers.  As the sub-title on the award logo says "discover new blogs!," I focused on blogs I admire that came into being within roughly the past 3 years:

• Angie's Garden Diaries
• Crumbs
• Practical Plant Geek
• Rambling in the Garden
• Rock-Oak-Deer

Angie, Amy, Evan, Cathy and Shirley: If you wish to accept the award, answer the following 11 questions in a post on your blog and select 5 nominees of your own to answer 11 questions of your choice.  I leave it up to your discretion whether you use the number of followers or some other criteria in making your selection.

My questions to those accepting the award are:

1) Why do you blog?
2) Words or photos?  Which do you labor over more in constructing a blog post?
3) What is one thing someone who knows you only through your blog would be surprised to learn about you?
4) What have you read in the past year that impacted your outlook, be it with respect to gardening or life in general?
5) If you had to chose, what is your favorite among the plants currently in your garden?
6) What plant do you covet that you don't currently have, or which wouldn't survive in your climate?
7) If you could pick up and move anywhere, where would that be and why?
8) If you knew in high school what you know now, what career would you have selected for yourself?
9) What plant have you killed at least 3 times, if any?
10) What do you like best about your own garden?
11) Name your favorite public garden.

Best wishes to all my nominees.  The nicest thing about this award is the opportunity to share my appreciation of your blogs.  Thanks again to Anna for facilitating that!


 All material © 2012-2015 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party