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October 8, 2013

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Celebration Soup

Do you have a favorite soup? I can’t choose, I like so many kinds, from the thick chili to the clear-brothed chicken vegetable. One of my sons prefers my cream of mushroom with shiitakes and the other likes best my Queen Green Soup. Don’t tell him, but it’s a cream of blended vegetable chock full of kale, spinach and/or chard. My daughter still prefers noodles, but I’m working on her.

Today, I’m making celebration soup. I hope you will join me at the table and break bread with me over some home-cooked soup. (Lots of veggies, sorry!)

First ingredient in any soup, some food, from seeds! Thanks to Belsbror for nominating friendlyfairytales for a Seed of Light Award. The light shines on the seeds in gardens around the world. No seeds, no food. Thanks Belsbror for this award that helps us remember.

Thanks to Donicia, a warm and creative blogger, for her delivery of stock ingredients. Her Grand Award included the Best Moment Award, Semper Fidelis, Shine One, the Awesome Blossom, the Very Inspiring Blogger, WordPress Family Award, the Versatile Blogger Award, and the Most Creative Blogger Award. I’m going to cook those together, nice and slowly for a clear, deep stock. (Since I have them all already, I’m using my award token to accept.)

Thanks to Maria M, a fabulous writer and dog lover, at decidinglybob for some spice: the Versatile Blogger award.

Now for a taste of the islands: Thanks to Bia Helvetti at childoftheisland for the Reader Appreciation Award. I am new to her blog, and I am delighted to be exploring it. Here are her words: Bia Helvetti is a Story Keeper who writes folktales and ballads based mainly around the mythology of Britain and Ireland. Whether reworking the old stories or spinning new yarns, her tales bear the mischievous claw marks of her dark humour, passionate feminism and romantic Gothic influences.

Here’s the 10 veggies: Thanks to Deo at Deo Volente for 10 more awards, some of which I’ve already received: the Sunshine Award, the Awesome Blossom, the Reader Appreciation, the Because You Are Fantabulous Award, the Versatile Blogger Award, the Liebster Award, and the Most Creative Blogger. If you don’t know Deo, you should visit him, he is a very smart and inspiring person with a lot of wisdom: “You cannot discover new oceans unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.” To accept those, I will repost my award token:

He also gave friendlyfairytales three new awards: the Outstanding Blogger, The Kreativ Blogger Award, and the Your Blog Makes Us Smile Award.

kreativ_blogger_award_copy

Trying out a new nomination format: to some terrific bloggers, please accept the following awards, no strings attached, simply an outpouring of admiration and a desire to share the love:

KeithGarrett, please accept the Seed of Light, for your delicious ghost story poems;

LavenderMoonGirl, please also accept the Seed of Light, for your magical nature poems;

BooknVolume, please accept the Grand Award from Donicia above (or any subset), for your restful Quiet Moments;

StockResearch52’sBlog, please accept the Versatile Blogger, for your amazing photographs, like fairy tales themselves;

WindAgainstCurrent, please accept the Versatile Blogger for your science, nature and recent fall colors, sigh;

ACuriousGal, please accept the Reader Appreciation Award, love your photos and love your comments;

MungaiandtheGoaConstrictor, please accept Deo’s Big Ten (or any subset), for your devotion to endangered animals;

DiffusetheMuse, please accept the Outstanding Blogger, for your consistent great poetry;

PhotographicRhodes, please accept the Kreativ Blogger for really connecting with subjects through photography; and

KindnessBlog, please accept the Your Blog Makes Us Smile, for your constant inspiration.

I hope you will check out these terrific bloggers, who really make my reader a fun place to be. I hope you enjoyed my celebration soup. A walk in the woods is a great way to celebrate a warm meal. Care to join me?

Thanks for the awards and thanks for reading!! I deeply appreciate the lovely feedback I’ve gotten these last six months, and it has come to mean more to me than I can say. (Just don’t tell Hubby, he might be jealous!)

Warmly,

Brenda

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Brenda Davis Harsham

Posted on

September 5, 2013

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Awards!, Videos by Friendlyfairytales

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31 Comments

Skye Awards

Photo Courtesy of Busymindthinking

Keep love in your heart.
A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead.
— Oscar Wilde

Mein Liebster Bloggers, Friends and Family,

I write to you, my lieblings, to celebrate loved ones, to thank wonderful bloggers and to pass the liebe (love) along to others. My kids and I made a new video, Healing Magic of Beauty, in honor of all those fighting sickness and disease, you know who you are.

In particular, I dedicate Healing Magic of Beauty to two beautiful women, without whom my world would be a darker place.

To Belinda: she battles disease, but still finds time to look up and embrace the mystery and beauty of the ever-changing sky. Then she records it and shared it with the world. You can find this brave and lovely lady at Busymindthinking.

To Aunt Mary: I also dedicate Healing Magic of Beauty to you on your birthday. You are the original magical one — the finder of four-leaf clovers, the savior of the forlorn, the wisest and loveliest woman I know. Thank you for the luck your love has always brought me. You are daily in my thoughts, and I send thoughts of healing, magic and love your way. Happy, Healthful Birthday!!

Now to some blog business of a most agreeable kind…

Bouquet

Thanks to Bullying Prevention for giving friendlyfairytales the 6-award! Thanks also to the Seeker57 for handing me a giant portion of 14 more also. They both have terrific blogs and lots to offer, and I hope you will visit them. I had previously received, posted and nominated others for nineteen of these twenty awards, and thus I will gladly use my award acceptance token.

The award new to Friendly Fairy Tales is the Seed of Light. Rules: put up the icon, thank the giver and pass the award on to five deserving individuals. I’m going to gift it to the nominees below to whom I am also giving the Liebster.

Thanks to Coach Muller for awarding friendlyfairytales the Liebster Award. He is an inspiring man with feel-good stories.

This is an award to help bloggers find new friends and to encourage other new bloggers. Liebster mean “dearest” in German.* Although I have received this award before, I have never before followed the rules or learned any German. I know, shocking of me. However, third time’s the charm, and so here goes:

The Rules: Put up the icon, thank and link-back to the giver, answer questions and pass it on like a hot cake to more 5 deserving newbie bloggers with some more questions. I’ll be interpreting Newbie Blogger liberally since I’ve seen many definitions from blogs with 200 to 3000 followers.** I’m just going to pass it on to people I found inspiring, amazing or fabulously funny, because I’m saving the rest of my brain power (limited as it is at my age) for writing. I’m not sure the questions are strictly necessary, but that’s how it was given to me, and why not?

The Liebster Award

Die informationen (the skinny) on me:

1. What makes you smile? My children, sunshine, chocolate, my hubby, oh, the list goes on and on…
2. What makes you sad? Fighting with people I love or seeing pain and unhappiness in others.
3. What motivates you? That’s a mystery. I’ve always been driven, not sure why.
4. How would you describe your personality? Buoyant, empathetic, pragmatic, creative and supportive
5. What do you least enjoy doing in life? Cleaning up bodily fluids, my own or that of any other. Yuck!!
6. What is your favorite song? Greensleeves speaks to my heart and always has.
7. What is your favorite quote and why? “Bend like the grass that you do not break.” by Kamala Markandaya — it’s genius.
8. How do you relax? Read, hike, dance, doze, tell stories to my kids or meditate in nature’s beauty.
9. What is your favorite food? Chicken Parmesan with Angel Hair pasta made by my hubby on my birthday.
10. Why do you blog? I ruptured a disc, dislocating nerves to my leg, and had back surgery. I used to go, go, go and now I’m having to stick around the house more. First, I wrote a children’s chapter book and then started writing fairy tales. People kept asking to see them, so I put up the fairy tales. That’s why I started, but I keep going because I’m addicted. I love it!

These seem like great questions, so I’m passing them on to these five dear bloggers, along with two awards: Seed of Light and Liebster. I hope you’ll give me some skinny back, but if not, I hope you will consider yourselves truly appreciated. 🙂

Samantha Winding Road
Pieces of Gravity Talking Experience
Granny’s Colorful

Here are some blumen (flowers) and baum (trees) from my wandern (wanderings) to thank my readers. I hope you will take a few moments today to feel loved. Shoot, why not every day?

Auf Wiedersehen!

Brenda

* http://www.dict.cc/german-english/Liebster.html
** http://sopphey.onimpression.com/2012/05/liebster-blog-award-origins.html
Note: Photograph of sky used with permission of Busymindthinking
Dedication: this post is dedicated to Skye, a gem of an island in Scotland, one of the most beautiful places on earth.