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Wednesday 3 February 2010

An Award



Well Mrs Ayak awarded me yet another award. She is considering me one of her circle of friends. Thank You Ayak, it's an honour. I shan't be sticking it on my side bar, but it is appreciated nontheless. For those who don't know Mrs Ayak, she writes a blog "Turkish Delight" (http://ayak-turkishdelight.blogspot.com/) (Sorry, don't know how to do that neat link thing...) about her life as an English woman in Turkey.

What I like about her blog is that the village she lives in seems a carbon copy of our village: up in the hills, but not far from the sea, exposed to the elements, things such as electricity, water supply, telephone connections don't always function as they should, but all in all there's a close community spirit there and people make you feel at home.

The award is supposed to be passed onto 5 others and I am to tell you about 5 things I like doing. First of all other bloggers I have started to consider as friends more recently are as follows:

  1. Angela @ Letters from Usedom (http://lettersfromusedom.blogspot.com/). Angela writes from her cosy sounding home on the Baltic Sea island of Usedom in Germany. Her love for humanity is infectious and she often has virtual cake eating sessions around her fire, with nice cups of hot chocolate. I recommend her place for a pleasant evening in.
  2. Jan @ Espace on Blogger (http://jansespaceonblogger.blogspot.com/). Jan and her husband Steve are building up a finca on the wind swept high plains of Catalunya. It sounds harsh up there and they have my sympathy.
  3. Anna @ Liguria Bella Liguria (http://beautiful-liguria.blogspot.com/). Anna is an Italian girl, who writes about her home region Liguria in English. She lives in Genoa and takes you on all sorts of excursions along the Italian Riviera.
  4. Chaiselongue @ Olives & Artichokes – a Mediterranean Garden (http://olives-and-artichokes.blogspot.com/). She and her husband escaped Wales to live in the Languedoc region of southern France, where they cultivate a small plot of land, experimenting with olives and other more or less exotic crops. Besides they take you on little trips to their local market or vineyard with some beautiful pics. You can stop by for some scrumtious meals too.
  5. Jen @ Sweet Water (http://murphyjenn78.blogspot.com/). And talking about scrumptious meals, you get some real feasts at Jen#s, especcially if you are into exotic meats. I don't comment on her site as often as I should. Jen suffers from bipolar disorder and depression and I often feel helpless. I don't want to pass comments which may make things worse for her, so I rather say nothing. I do listen though... I do often think of her though and hence I hope this award will cheer her up somewhat.

Right and on the 5 things I like doing. I'm a man of simple pleasures

  1. Gardening. Well obviously derrr. Otherwise I wouldn't be doing this. I just like being in the outdoors and keep witnessing the miracle of seeds becoming fully grown plants which sustain us.
  2. Cooking and baking. I am the cook around our house and I like coming up with new combinations from limited resources. I can almost do the Charlie Chaplin and turn an old boot into a meal!
  3. Listening to music from all over the world. Music tells so much about a culture it comes from. I listen to anything from Irish diddledee to India Sitar, from Blues to Classic, some rock, Nordic folk, Italian folk, Mongolian throat singing, Indonesian Gamelan you name it. My only criterion is, it has to come from the inside, not some made up commercial rubbish made to please the masses
  4. walking / hiking. For those who don't know, my name rhymes with psycho. So I suppose you could say I was predestined to enjoy "heiking" We've lived here for over 5 years now and we are still finding new paths through the woods. This of course combines well with another passion of mine: wild food gathering.
  5. reading. Finally I do like reading a good book.

That's it for today folks!

9 comments:

Angela said...

Thank you, Heiko, for including me in your circle of friends! (Come on over and have a piece of my famous juicy chocolate cake!)And for passing on your award! I have also just given up fixing awards on my sidebar, but I like to be awarded anyhow. When it comes to naming fice things I like, I want to copy yours!!! I`m not so sure about the throat singing, but good music of any kind. Gesang vertreibt die dunklen Sorgen! And I also like Terry Pratchett (who is now having Alzheimer`s, shame!).
Danke, Heiko!

Jenn said...

thank you so much heiko!
i hope you know that i do appreciate it every time i hear from you! knowing that i have the support of people like you keeps me going much of the time. It makes me feel like everything will get better eventually.
thank you again!

Ayak said...

Great stuff Heiko. The thing I like about these awards is that it opens up the blogging world a bit more and leads us to other interesting blogs.

Heiko said...

Angela, I'll take you up one day on that chocolate cake, you know! You'll regret it, you won't get rid of me easily after that. ;-). Terry Pratchett is great. Not only does he have a great sense of humour, but his books have a lot of deep philosophical ideas hidden in them. I'll write you some of my favourite quotes by him some time. Do you read him in original or in German translation?

Jenn, you are very welcome. Being in general a very positive person, I find it difficult to put myself into your shoes, which is something I'm normally quite good at. I just want to tell you to cheer up, things could be worse, but I know it's not as simple as that.

Anna said...

Ciao Heiko,:-D thank you so much, you don't know how I have appreciated it! You make me smile and I will be happy all the day for your including me in the circle. I'm new in this world of bloggers and I'm trying to do my best to express my passions for Liguria in my posts. It's gratifying to have followers like you! thanks again... Anna

Angela said...

Heiko, I`ll send you my recipe! And when you come to visit, I`ll rather make you a Jens-Jensen-Torte. THEN you`ll really put up a tent in our garden! haha
You`ve got to read Terry P. in English, how can you translate all his word-wit and funny names? (Casanunda, the womanizing dwarf?)
Now I must go and shovel snow again.

Jan said...

Thankyou Heiko, I've never got an award before so it's much appreciated.

chaiselongue said...

Thank you, Heiko, for making me one of your circle of friends - it's much appreciated and I consider you and your blog part of my circle of blogging friends. I hope you won't mind if I don't pass it on, though, as I don't usually do this. I put my friends' blogs (including yours) on my sidebar all the time. But thanks again, and thanks for your interesting and very enjoyable blog!

Heiko said...

Anna, keep the good work going.

Thank you for the recipe Angela. You're right about Terry Pratchett being untranslatable, but I know it's been attempted and wondered how they did it.

Jan, you are welcome.

Chaiselongue, don't worry about it. I'm enjoying your blog just as much. I had a peep into your web-site the other day too. I didn't realise you do creative writing too.