A thoughtful blog

The Thinker and Dick Madeley have simultaneously nominated me for a Thoughtful Blogger Award. That's really lovely. Thank you. I have added the award to the small heap of gongs collecting snugly but not smugly at the bottom of this blog.
I wasn't that much of a prizewinner in my youthful days. I do remember getting a cartoon version of the Old Testament for doing something or other at Hebrew classes. I still have it. I read it many, many times and kept it by my bed. Not because I was a religious child; on the contrary I told my parents that I didn't believe in God at a very early age and reasoned effectively that it was therefore inappropriate for me to continue attending said award-bestowing Hebrew classes on a Sunday morning. What kept me intrigued was that the book was a forerunner of graphic fiction, and I was of an age to relish every carefully drawn detail of the burning bush, Jacob's ladder and Lot's wife turned into a pillar of salt. The women were Modesty Blaise in modest robes and the men an early form of Superman with six-packs, broad shoulders and oddly, hips wrapped tightly in long skirt-type affairs.
I also received a prize when I left secondary school; I have no recollection what it was for. What I DO remember was that typically of me, I fell up the stairs to the stage and sprawled at the feet of the embarrassed celebrity giving out the goodies. I don't remember who he was either.
So I must now hand out five more gongs, but as allowed by the rules, I will be giving out a different gong - a Creative Blogger award - for creative bloggers who stand out from the crowd. To avoid an incestuous and virtuous circle of award giving I will hunt out some fresh blood and nominate below as they come to light.

1. The Veg Box Diaries, because they share a love for Cavolo Nero and have an elegant blog categorised by luscious food type.
2. Tunnocks Teacakes Forever...for a fab title. And I think a greed theme is developing here
   
3. Aphra Behn, notably for her lentils
4. Nourishing Obscurity, not for the grub but for the maniacal outpourings of wondrous daft stuff that is a veritable waterfall
   
5. more to follow....

Post Script:
And at the end of the weekend, I now find, courtesy of the fascinating Eurodog blogger, that I have also been handed an Inspirational Blogger award. I will take my time to suss out the ongoing nominations to encourage me to actively hunt down voices that are new to me. I will be updating this post as and when I do.

Reading the meter

Vanity requires one to check how the few but cherished people visiting and reading actually find this blog, and the fascinating site meter has a tale of its own to tell. There are the lovely old faithfuls who keep you snugly in their sidebar (for which, much thanks) and so signpost new readers to Mopsa's offerings. But I really enjoy unearthing the info that folks have found me via some totally personal and possibly bonkers Google search.

If you google “soaking filthy feet”, as one hopeful clean soul (sole?) had, Ramblings is currently first in line. Then there was “Chagford & tango”, “the magic faraway tree” (thrice), “mariana lambing”, “Mrs Malaprop”(twice), “funday fairies daisy meadows order online”, “drop em blossom”, “chim chiminey”, “location of sloes, Warwickshire”, "abscess on gordon ramsay turkeys foot", "guinea pig runny bum", "langan family theatre royal stratford east" and “wet wellies”.
I doubt that I have provided either relief or information on any of these topics, but it's good to know that if you have concerns about pet rodent diarrhoea or how to dry your wellingtons, that an utterly useless piece of Mopsa whimsy or whingeing can distract you momentarily from your research.

But back to the old faithfuls. I hadn't dared contemplate that this blog contains "nature meets art"; The Thinker is a generous soul. The Thinker, she of various articulate and thoughtful blogs (and also blogging from Devon) has shipped a Blogging Community Involvement Award my way, which sounds highly do-gooderish until you realise it is an award for being a schmoozer. Schmooze I can do - sometimes I think that's what I'm paid for. I grew up with words like schmooze, many of them less than polite. And how many people do you know who can speak Yiddish? As a language that no-one round my way is familiar with, it could be said to encourage dissembling, but these days I have to rack my brain to remember just a handful of words. Kvetch, chutzpah, mensch, messhuganer, nebbish, schlemiel, schlong, schmutter, schnoz, shtick, tush, yenta.....what fabulously expressive words - a whole phrase and intention in each.

And now I must nominate 5 awards of my own:

1. Chip Dale, the master thonglateer
2. Yorkshire Pudding, in exchange for his mature blogger award
   
3. Kaz, the busy idler
4. Drunk Mummy - just as it says on the tin
5. Mountainear, for schmoozing from great heights and to great effect.
   

Old lady award

The hearty Yorkshire Pudding (delicious with your Sunday roast) has handed me a mature blogger.
Apparently, this new and by definition currently rare award goes to those "who have blogged with mature dignity, saying wise and mature things" Worryingly, the associated traits are drinking in moderation, praying each night and beginning every other sentence with either "When I was young..." or "In my day...".
This award is therefore causing me concern me on numerous counts:

1. I am not ready to grasp the baton of middle age, no matter what it says on my passport
2. Neither am I ready to relinquish the inner child
3. Mr Pudding called me Mr Mopsa...he thinks I'm a man. Do I sound like a man? Should I worry that I sound like a man? I'm not a man. Honest. Didn't you read my blog on bras? I think I've written two of them. Don't they count for anything??
   
4. My drinking is in such moderation that the Bloody Mary I had on Friday night was the first bit of alcohol to pass my lips since I chomped on a chocolate cherry brandy liqueur some months back, but that doesn't make me mature, does it? Just sad.
5. What's praying?
6. But yes, I must admit to penning phrases such as "aeons ago" or similar when relating past experiences, and have shared the actuality of my grey streaked hair, so I probably only have myself to blame.

I will try and write like a youthful snippet, a flibberty gibbet with no cares in the world, an ageless soul. And then perhaps someone will, in all innocence, send me an award for blogging juvenilia. I can only hope.

Ramblings, Mutterings and Meanderings

She takes a bow, she smacks her lips at the prospect of champagne and truffles, and then gets real as she sucks on her glass of water and looks longingly at the heap of dogs wanting to be walked and the smaller heap of second hand paperbacks bought from Oxfam this morning - they'll just have to wait. The lovely M&M has awarded her Thoggers (Thinking Blogger Awards) and I must show grace. And now my obligation is to award five Thoggers of my own. And then their obligation is to award etc etc and so on and on and on. I will try not to be too incestuous in my choices and bring a bit of fresh blood into the process, but don't count on that. So, with greatest respect, my nominations are:

1. Peter D Cox
2. Random Acts of Reality
3. mamajules
4. Grumpy Old Bookman
5. Strife in the North ( I know, I know, but perhaps incest is allowable on occasion?)

I doubt it'll change your life or even your afternoon, but it's always nice to be appreciated. Hugs to all. Keep making us think.