spreading sunshine


The Sunshine Award is awarded to bloggers who positively and creatively inspire others.


Bernie (of My Dry Tropics Garden and Bush Bernie's Blog) nominated me for this prize ... thanks for the compliment, Bernie. Bernie blogs from cyclone-prone Townsville, Northern Queensland, and her popular blogs document her garden progress and its botanical and wildlife inhabitants.


There's no such thing as a free lunch or a free prize. For this prize I now need to answer 10 questions. 


10.    FAVOURITE COLOUR:   GREEN

The lake at Markdale (Wikipedia)
Edna Walling, influential Australian garden writer and designer who died in 1973, used to remind gardeners (who often still seem to forget) that green is also a colour. 

9.  FAVOURITE ANIMAL
  DOG / POSSUM


Environmental correctness (and my heart) says choose the possum. Loyalty (and my heart) says choose my dog, Potter. Can we have a dead heat, please, whoever has laid down the Sunshine rules?



8.  FAVOURITE NUMBER: 3579 


Why 3579??????  Simply because they are the best numbers to achieve natural looking drifts or groupings of plants. On the other hand, if you're after a formal, symmetrical look, you'd do better to go for even numbers.




7. FAVOURITE NON ALCOHOLIC DRINK: TEA


Just give me a nice cuppa tea - in the garden, before gardening, after gardening. Even during gardening, if I can manage with one hand. Any kind of tea - white tea, black tea, green tea - I am not in the least colour prejudiced.


6. FACEBOOK OR TWITTER: NEITHER


Blogland for me is an island. I'm at home on this island. But when I visit Facebook, it feels too crowded. As for Twitter, don't get me started ... there, I've finished, in less than 140 characters.


5. MY PASSION: THE NATURAL WORLD


My passion is the natural world - being in it, thinking about it, talking about it, photographing it, dreaming about it, reading about it and writing about it. 


4. GETTING OR GIVING PRESENTS: BOTH


3. FAVOURITE PATTERN: NATURE'S PATTERNS


I love all patterns in nature. There are no straight lines in nature. The wind blows the sand into wavy patterns, the seagull's claws track across the dunes. The shell forms a perfect spiral.  


2. FAVOURITE DAY OF THE WEEK: DEPENDS


Favourite day is when I garden. Favourite day is when I'm with my grand-babies. Best of all is when I am with my grand-babies in the garden.




1.FAVOURITE FLOWER: LASIOPELALUM


Hard, hard question. For a change I think I'l go for character over pretty, so I'll choose the genus with flowers Wikipedia describes as 'small, hairy, with tiny petals.' 




Now ...   drumroll ...  the Sunshine Awards ... awarded to four creative, inspirational bloggers ... more drumroll ...


1.  Faisal Grant's blog Gardener in the Distance is quirky, poetic, spiritual, creative, sensitive and funny. (It's not all those things in every post, though. I wouldn't like to create unrealistic expectations.)


2. Susan only started her blog, As Long You Have A Garden, at the beginning of this year. She has jumped into the blogosphere incredibly enthusiastically, making loads of cyber-contacts, and showcasing her varied imaginative interests: books, history, the environment, kids, travel, plants - you name it, this bubbly blogger is likely to write about it. Susan blogs and gardens in Canada.


3. Serena of Serena's Secret Gardens is another local Melbourne blogger, like Faisal and me. Serena's blog, reflecting her life, is rich and full, with stuff about her garden, her chooks, her travels, plant information and much much more.


4. Leanne's blog is Bush and Beach (Australia). Leanne lives in suburban Brisbane where she has a native habitat garden. She writes about her garden, and also about the many Australian National Parks she visits. Visiting this blog is the next best thing to visiting lots of National Parks in Australia.

Comments

  1. Congrats to you!!! Thanks for the insights. I'm having one of those times right now like you were having a while back....trapped inside my house and at work. And on top of that my blogger energy is slowly draining from me:) Nature shoots are always fun, blogging is amazing, work is good, and gardening is great. Finding the time to balance it all in is difficult:) Maybe a cup of tea is what I need;) Hope you are well and having fun:)

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    1. hi chris, my reply to you is below, I put it in the wrong spot. cm

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  2. How wonderful to get to know you better and congrats on the award! I'm with you 100% about loving nature's patterns the best. She is the ultimate designer!

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  3. You are really a sunshine Catmint! I don't twit & fb. Just blog. So yes I like how you imagined blog to be... blogland an island... that's a good one haha... cheers, Stephanie

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    1. Hi Steph, thanks for the visit and comment. I think we would get more readers if we linked to FB, but I guess we've got too comfortable on our island ... cheers, catmint

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  4. Hey Catmint thanks so much for the compliment ....I am humbled!

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    1. one of the wonderful things about the garden blogosphere is the bloggers - like Faisal says below!

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  5. Thankyou, Catmint. My blog would be nothing without the dialogue I have with other bloggers, without feeling that what I put out there is not just for me but for them, for communication itself, and for art. I feel on ongoing drive to be more interesting and more varied, more pertinent. Fortunately, I'll never feel that I've accomplished that, ie there is always some new way to express what matters to me. A bit of encouragement along the way, though, is a great boost!

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    1. sounds like you suffer from that very serious illness - perfectionism. dear cyberfriend, consider yourself sincerely encouraged!

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  6. Thank you for the award and kind words-I'm blushing. I will check out the other recipients, its fun to discover really neat blogs.

    I drink my tea from mugs that look like terracotta flower pots.

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    1. that's the great thing about these awards, they help you discover new blogs. Do you think you'll accept the award, answer the 10 questions and choose 5 bloggers you find creative and inspirational? (It's hard to choose of course)

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  7. ... and I too, am flattered that you also chose my blog. Thank you Catmint and I thoroughly enjoyed your '10 question' response; as always another entertaining post from your corner of the world.

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    1. thanks Leanne, I enjoyed answering the questions, they weren't too personal, and could be related to gardening.

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  8. Congratulations on your award!
    #6 made me laugh out loud. Makes me doubt that you don't tweet. ;-P

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    1. I've never tweeted, I try to stay focussed and in the present, and it must be quite different to be experiencing something and more or less at the same time tweeting about it. I think I think and process information slowly and by the time the tweet was sent I would have changed my mind about how I saw it.

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  9. Hi Chris, I'm starting to come out of my hole, sounds like you are sliding in. Hope you regain your energy asap - you have so much to give, so vibrant, so creative, maybe you just need some down time, pottering time i call it, without achieving anything much, just mooching. cheers, catmint

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