Interview, A Tag, and Awards

I gave Susan of Penless Writer permission to interview me. Very brave. (Me not Susan that is!) These were the 5 questions that she came up with.



1. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

I cannot foresee the future, but my desire would be to be alive and healthy and being who God means me to be in everything and everyone that He brings into my life.

2. What is your greatest accomplishment in life?

To have reached the age of 70 fit and healthy with a zest for life and a faith that makes everything else worthwhile, and to see my 2 children healthy, fulfilled and independent.

3. If money were no object where would you live and what would you do?

I would not want to live anywhere other than where I do because this is where God has put me and I am blessed to be surrounded by like minded people of faith but I could have my house raised to the ground and rebuilt to my own specifications, especially giving me more scope for hospitality. As far as money is concerned I would want to pay off my children's mortgages, help my church and travel in some luxury which would include a new car.

4. Do you set goals for yourself? If so what is one you are working on now?

A bit ambiguous for me this question as I do not really set goals, I prefer to be open to God's leading, but I do like to plan in my mind which I see as different to a goal. At the moment I am working on de-cluttering my house, and thinking about spring cleaning and some house decoration that we need to do and some things that need replacing. This of course is much dependent on whether hubby agrees or not!

5. If you could change one thing about yourself what would it be?

Again a difficult question because if I changed the things I don't like about myself I would not be me. I prefer to allow God to do the changing. I would prefer never to suffer anxiety or depression or fear but those are the things that God has used to grow me on my journey.




Zetor of Mog's Blog tagged me with showing the 4th photo in my 4th file on my computer. That particular photo I was not at liberty to show without invading the privacy of another so instead I chose the 4th photo in the 4th file from the bottom of the list.

This photograph is of the house in Devon where Alan and I spent our honeymoon over Christmas of 1959. It belonged to friends of my Aunt's who owned Palmer's Biscuit factory and they had just bought it to run as a guest house. We were their first guests. It was on the edge of Dartmoor.

Betty of Country Charm awarded me the above award.

The authors say that blogs who receive this award are exceedingly charming. This blog invests in the PROXIMITY in space, time and relationships. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that even more friendships are propagated. I pass this award on to Susan of Penless Writer as above.



And Memaw of It Came to Pass awarded me this Lemons to Lemonade award which is apparently for showing a grateful attitude. I pass this on to Susan of Adventurous Living

I appreciate the thoughts and kindness of these awards and the people who have sent them to me and the people to whom I have passed them on.

Top 100 Books Meme

I received this Book Meme from Sara of Much Ado About Something The BBC began broadcasting this through 'The Big Read' in 2003. The National Endownment for the Arts in America estimates that the average adult has only read 6 of the books from this current list. As did Sara, I thought it would be fun to see how many I have read. If you want to take on this challenge, let me know and I will come and look at your scores.

1. Bold those you have read

2. Italicize those you intend to read

3. [Bracket] those you have viewed via movie, TV or theatre



1 [Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen]

2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien

3 [Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte]

4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling

5 [To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee]

6 The Bible

7 [Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte]

8 [Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell]

9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

10( Great Expectations - Charles Dickens)

11 [Little Women - Louisa M Alcott]

12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

14 Complete Works of Shakespeare

15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier

16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien

17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks

18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger

19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

20 [Middlemarch - George Eliot]

21 [Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell)

22 [The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald]

23 [Bleak House - Charles Dickens]

24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

26 [Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh]

27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

28 [Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck]

29 (Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll)

30(The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame)

31 [Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy]

32 [David Copperfield - Charles Dickens]

33 [Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis]

34 [Emma - Jane Austen]

35 [Persuasion - Jane Austen]

36 [The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis]

37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini

38 (Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres)

39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden

40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell

42 (The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown )
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving

45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

46 [Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery]

47 [Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy]

48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood

49 [Lord of the Flies - William Golding]

50 Atonement - Ian McEwan

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel

52( Dune - Frank Herbert)

53 [Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons)

54 [Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen]

55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth

56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon

60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

61 [Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck]

62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt

64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold

65 [Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas]

66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac

67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy

68 [Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding]

69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie

70 [Moby Dick - Herman Melville]

71 [Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens]

72 Dracula - Bram Stoker

73 [The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett]

74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson

75 Ulysses - James Joyce

76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath

77 ( Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome)

78 Germinal - Emile Zola

79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray

80 Possession - AS Byatt

81 [A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens]

82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

83 [The Color Purple - Alice Walker]

84 [The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro]

85 [Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert]

86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

87 ( Charlotte’s Web - EB White)

88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom

89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

92 [The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery]

93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

94 (Watership Down - Richard Adams)

95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

96 (A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute)

97 [The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas]

98 [Hamlet - William Shakespeare]

99 [Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl]

100 (Les Miserables - Victor Hugo)


My Score:
I have read 37

I intend to read 7 (and already have them)

I have viewed 49

If you decide to do this, I am sure you know that you do not have to type it all out, just copy and past it and then alter for your own scores.

Sara found this interesting link
http://www.nicholaswhyte.info/100books/bbcbigread.htm

Queue's, Awards and a Tag

This sculpture appeared on the pavement in our town recently

It is called The Queue

Ironically there is not a queue at the bus stop in this shot

It is too early for people to be leaving, they are just coming in

You won't see me in a queue as I always use the car

and this is in spite of having a seniour citizens free bus pass

The real thing but again no real queue's

Over the last couple of weeks I have received some awards and a tag
The YOU MAKE MY DAY award came from Cindy of In a Garden
Thank you Cindy for your kind and very encouraging comments
I am truly honoured
I pass this on to Merisi of Vienna for Beginners
Merisi makes my day when I visit her and see her wonderful photos of Vienna
she has such an eye for a special photo





This award came from Isobel of The Cosy Corner
Thank you Isobel
I pass this on to Sara of Much Ado About Something
I think Sara's is an excellent blog for it's varied content and interest
her expert photography and her faith that comes through in such
a non-confrontational way


And now for the tag I received this from Mob of The Baby Journals
I pass it on to Sara (as above) as she was saying recently that she was in the 'bloggy doldrums'
so hope this puts some wind in your sails Sara

1.Were you named after anyone? No
2. When was the last time you cried? So long ago I can't remember
3. Do you like your handwriting? Yes
4. What is your favorite lunch meat? Honey Roast Ham
5. Do you have kids? No but 2 adult friends
6. If you were another person would you be friends with you? Hope so
7. Do you use sarcasm a lot? No but my sense of humour is dry
8. Do you still have your tonsils? Yes
9. Would you bungee jump? No
10. What is your favorite cereal? Dorset Cereals Berries and Cherries Muesli
11. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off? Definitely
12. Do you think you are strong? Most of the time
13. What is your favorite ice cream? Ben and Jerry's Cookie Dough
14. What is the first thing you notice about people? Their eyes
15. Red or pink? Red
16. What is the thing that you like least about yourself? Stomach

17. Who do you miss the most? My longest standing best friend
19. What color pants and shoes are you wearing? Parchment (I assume you mean trousers - pants mean knickers in England) Black
20. Have you ever re-gifted? No
21. What are you listening to right now? The tap, tap,tap of the keyboard
22. If you were a crayon what colour would you be? Green
23. Favorite smells? Lavender and my Jean Lois Scherrer perfume
24. Who was the last person you talked to on the phone? My daughter

25. Do you like the person who sent this to you? Very much so, what would she think if I typed, no!
26. Favorite sports to watch? None
30. Favorite food? Lots but freshly baked bread with butter takes some beating
31. Scary movies or happy endings? Happy
32. Last movie you watched? A Good Woman

33. What color shirt are you wearing? Taupe
34. Summer or winter? Summer
35. Hugs or kisses? Hugs

36. Favorite dessert? Lemon anything
39. What book are you reading now? Searching for Tilly by Susan Sallis and Living Beyond the Limits by Franklin Graham
40. What is on your mouse pad? My mouse
41. What did you watch on TV last night? Nothing I was out
42. Favorite sound? Waves lapping on the sand
43. Rolling stones or Beatles? Beatles
44. What is the furthest you have been from home? Mexico
45. Do you have a special talent? Lots
46. Where were you born? Liverpool, England