Last week I had a lovely and unexpected surprise when I received a nomination for the Dragon’s Loyalty Award for Excellence from the wonderful Michelle Joelle whose work I have come to admire very much indeed. She is a philosopher, theologian, poet and story teller of genuine quality and each of these enriches the other three in a most exciting manner. In reading her work I know that the spirit of the Renaissance still lives among us.
Like Michelle I am not sure what Dragons and loyalty have to do with excellence. I guess that they relate to a story and perhaps the story in the picture but sadly I don’t know what it is. My wife, who is Welsh, wrote stories for our children about Welsh dragons when they were young and she was therefore delighted that I should receive such an award. That is enough for me!
The Dragon´s Loyalty Award is presented to blogs with exceptional content and in order to accept the Dragon’s Loyalty Award, you must:
- Display the Award on your Blog.
- Announce your win with a post and thank the Blogger who awarded you.
- Present 15 deserving Bloggers with the Award
- Link your awardees in the post and let them know of their being awarded.
- Write seven interesting things about you.
I have already done the first two and now to the other three. Michelle only named 7 blogs to tie in with her 7 facts. I too have not named 15 but in my case I name 8. I do so simply because each time a new posting from each of these arrives in my Reader I respond with delight.
The EIGHT really wonderful blogs that I would like to recommend are
Okanagan Okanogan
And my 7 interesting facts? Well here are 7 that come to mind that you may or may not find interesting. I think that all lives are interesting.
1. While growing up I earned my pocket money at weekends by cleaning out the pigs and feeding them.
2. I went to an English boarding school from the age of 14 to 18 but if any magic was ever done there I never saw it!
3. I used to regularly watch my favourite Premier League football (soccer!) team, Southampton, from the balcony of a good friend’s penthouse apartment. The club have moved to a new stadium since then but I don’t think that is the reason!
4. I taught in a school in Zambia, Central Africa, between 1978 and 1984 and did a lot of growing up in that time.
5. I live with my family in a 200 year old cottage next to a road that the Romans built and at the junction of two canals. Donkeys were once kept in the room that we now use as a workshop and cellar.
6. I love all kinds of music but especially classical and I am delighted that my daughters have come to share that love. One is a fine pianist and the other learning to play the harp and both are very good singers.
7. I have walked my dog between 6 and 7 each morning for 8 years now and this has reconnected me wonderfully to the earth, the weather and to the changing of the seasons. Sometimes this time of day is dark, sometimes light and sometimes and most magically I walk at dawn.
I do hope most of all that this award will send you to the blogs I have nominated and to the wonderful blog of Michelle Joelle who nominated me for this award.
Wisdom from The Lord of the Rings 
Just wondering, how do you clean out a pig? 😉
Ha, ha! That just shows how an idiom in one part of the English speaking world can sound complete nonsense in another. Just to clarify. All our pigs were in sties and so “to clean out the pigs” simply meant to clean their sty, often with lots of piglets chewing away at our boots! Thanks for reading this!
Don’t worry, I got that. I read way more British authors than American ones, (and we also speak the Queen’s English in SA, after all), so it’s seldom that an expression like this stumps me. I just also always find it amusing how the same language can be so different from one part of the world to the next (or, especially if we look at the British Isles, from one suburb to the next 😉 )
What a wonderful post – your seven facts are most certainly I interesting, and I can’t wait to check out the blogs in your list that are unfamiliar to me. I am honored by your kind words, and so happy to have found your blog.
I am so glad that you liked it and them. I think it is one of the enrichments of contemporary life that people with ideas are enabled to connect with each other through the blogging community. When I was in Africa my only social medium was pen and paper. I did not even have access to a phone. That was a blessing in itself. I read so much and delighted in the silence in a way I can no longer.
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