The Very Inspiring Blogger Award

I am very grateful to announce that I have been nominated for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award by the Belmont Rooster – Lonnie Miller. His blog is fascinating to a gardener like myself. He’s been at it for years and you can tell. He’s collected hundreds of plants that he talks about and shows us in his posts on two different gardens he’s done. He also sprinkles in some good old fashioned wisdom now and then about the human condition, and that all makes him a Very Inspiring Blogger himself, as well as his other awards and many great posts. He’s a bit of an activist blogger and does a lot of work for his Awards and posts. I think that’s great! You can see his work at: http://thebelmontrooster.wordpress.com/ and I strongly encourage you to do so. Thanks a bunch for this Award, Lonnie!

I’m a bit overwhelmed by all this I have to say – simply receiving it is an honor to me and I really appreciate it. It’s my first award and maybe will be the last I don’t know so I’ll enjoy it while I can. I have to do several things I learned from Lonnie in order to accept this Award and one of them is simply to list them. So I’ll list the rules now:

Rules of the Very Inspiring Blogger Award

1. Thank the person who nominated you and supply a link to their blog.

2. Display the Award on your post.

3. List the Award rules so your nominees will know what to do.

4. State 7 things about yourself

5. Nominate 15 other bloggers for the Award.

6. Contact your nominees to let them know you have nominated them and provide a link to this post about it.

7. Proudly display the award logo (or button) on your Blog, whether on the About page, your sidebar, or on a special awards page.

Even Lonnie says you don’t have to follow these rules exactly as he’s written them. Just do your best. The intent is to enjoy the honor and to connect people to other bloggers you think are important to share with the WordPress Community. That’s my opinion anyway…

I’ve done numbers 1,2,3 & 7 already so I’ll try now for number 4. It’s a hard one for me, and for others too I’ll bet. Here we go:

7 things about myself:

1. I love steamed greens with balsamic vinegar and a touch of butter.

2. I just read a series of books about a moral wizard.

3. I like the Afro-Celt Sound System a lot.

4. I adore chocolate, duh… ( I know – too easy.. 😉 )

5. I don’t exercise enough and it’s killing me.

6. I am Not the typical Seattle geek, but a geek nevertheless, I guess…

7. I wear glasses to see this computer but not to see Life, yet.

OK, that’s done. Whew! So, on to the next, and most important piece of the things I have to do – Nominate my nominees. I have to say a couple of things here to explain myself to some people. I got the notion from Lonnie that I had to contact the people I wanted to nominate First and get their approval Before I nominated them. I have since learned that it’s far easier and more common to simply post your favorites and let the cards fall where they may as far as people accepting them. So I’m doing a bit of both. I’d already contacted several people when I learned this advice so to those I contacted I say Thank You for letting me nominate you whether you’ve responded to me yet or not. The important thing is to honor You and say you deserve this Award for your Excellent blog. If you want it I applaud you for being willing to carry it on and follow the rules. If you don’t want to I understand and still think you Rock!

So here are my favorite inspiring blogs as of right now this moment because it could change in a minute when I read something new I like. I’m not fickle but I do like a lot of different things… I could have listed more frankly. Some I’ve followed for a year, some for a couple of weeks, but I like them all and they’ve all meant something good to me. Here are my Nominees, in no particular order. You all have Wonderful blogs that have definitely inspired me and I thank you all for them!

My 15 nominees

1. White Rabbit’s Gallery http://hakescafe.com/

2. This Time – This Space http://thistimethisspace.com/

3. The Bipolar Codex http://bipolarcodex.wordpress.com/

4. The Novice Gardener http://thenovicegardener.wordpress.com/

5. My Botanical Garden http://mybotanicalgarden.wordpress.com/

6. Chris Condello http://chriscondello.wordpress.com/

7. Cancer Killing Recipe http://cancerkillingrecipe.wordpress.com/

8. She Brings Me Water http://shebringsmewater.wordpress.com/

9. To Be Aware http://idolanuel.com/

10. Horticultural Hobbit http://horticulturalhobbit.com/

11. Acair Fearann http://acairfearann.com/

12. The Jiggly Bits http://thejigglybits.com/

13. Kendall F. Person – The Public Blogger http://thepublicblogger.com/

14. Earthing Rocks http://earthingrocks.wordpress.com/

15. The Apothecary’s Garden http://apothecarysgarden.com/?wref=bif

I really hope you’ll take the time to visit these extraordinary bloggers and their wonderful blogs. To the nominees: To make it a bit easier here are a couple of links that tell you more about the Award and how to put it up on your site. I used this and it was pretty easy to do. The hard part is linking all your nominees to your post. That took some time and energy, but it’s just copy and paste so it’s not really that bad. It’s a lot of work to receive these Awards I’m finding and I wonder about the necessity of all the rules. But I see that they are necessary if the Awards system is to continue and I hope it does. I’m doing my best to follow them and I hope you will too if you accept the Award. It’s meant as a compliment to you and not as extra work, tho I know it is.

Posting the Award to your Blog

Here are a couple of links from Lonnie… This is to his post about receiving the VIB Award and he shows you a bunch of possible logos you can use so I’m posting the link to them here instead of trying to redo them all on my site because I don’t know how. Check this out: http://thebelmontrooster.wordpress.com/2013/11/25/my-very-inspiring-blogger-award/. You can also go to a site that he recommends there to get the story on putting the logo on your site itself in the sidebar. It’s from the site by Lorraine Reguly and has a neat video that explains it well. Here it is: http://lorrainemariereguly.wordpress.com/2013/09/17/how-to-add-images-to-your-sidebar/.

So I guess I’ve covered everything I can think of. I’m really happy that we have these Awards. I notice a lot on some sites and none on others and I wonder why? Now I have a better idea. First you have to be nominated for an Award and then you have to do some work to make it continue. I think it’s a great way to introduce your community to new blogs they might not have heard of or read. It’s a good thing and I’m totally glad I got this Award. But I’ll think twice the next time, if there is one, before accepting I think. I’ll see what this does for me in terms of getting more likes and follows and especially comments. I don’t get many of them and I treasure them all. Please do talk to me if you like my own work. Feedback is essential if we’re going to be good at this and I’ve gotten enough to make me feel like it’s worthwhile to continue but I could use more. I wish that for everyone on here – that you have people like your posts and follow and comment on your blogs. It’s a good system and there are a Lot of us on here so what you say can have far reaching effects. That’s a good thing I think. I always try to speak directly to my readers with what I have to say, and I know that my words will echo out into the blogoshpere for years potentially. Nothing ever goes away on the net…. So blog well and conscientiously and have fun doing it. Thank You all again for Inspiring me with your blogs.

All the best to you all,

Steve