Gratitude, a good way to end the year
Posted: December 31, 2011 Filed under: 365 Yoga Challenge, Adventures in Life, Air, Blog awards, celebrations, Critters, Earth, friends, health, home, Letting Go, life, nature, Photography, pond, Spirit, Thanks!, Walking, water, weather, winter, yoga | Tags: birds, Leibster Award, nature, Photography, pond, postaday2011, Versatile Blogger Award, water 57 Comments#4 on my list of Things To Do While I’m Not Feeling Well: Say thank you.
Some of my fabulous blogmates have gifted me with the honor of a blog award or two. For once I think I might actually follow the rules. Well, sort of. Kind of. Maybe.
I have been gifted and honored with the Versatile Blogger Award as well as the Seven Links Blog Award. Here are the rules for the Versatile Blogger Award:
- Thank the award-giver and link back to them in your post.
- Share 7 things about yourself.
- Pass this award along to 15 recently discovered blogs you enjoy reading.
- Contact your chosen bloggers to let them know about the award.
- Most Beautiful
- Most Popular
- Most Controversial
- Most Helpful
- Most Surprisingly Successful
- Most Underrated
- Most Worthy of Pride
Thank you so much (in no particular order because you are all fabulous) Stefan, Pat Bean, Dana, Kathy M, Jane Tims, Kathy from Reflections from a friend, and anyone I might have forgotten. If I did forget you, please accept my apologies and let me know so I can thank you and add you to the link love list. I am grateful for the honor and recognition.
Thank you to all of my visitors. You have helped to make this a fantastic year of blogging. I’ve met a lot of new bloggers and made some wonderful new friends. Thank you, thank you, and thank you. Thank you to WordPress for PostADay2011. It’s been an interesting, often fun, year.
And now, seven things about me that you may or may not know:
- I have a high tolerance for pain, but not for illness. I want to be well. Now. This current bout of illness is teaching me a lot about patience.
- My favorite scent is lavender. It goes well with my favorite color which is purple.
- I have been blogging in some form since 1999 when I joined an online quit smoking community that used a diary format. (The site no longer exists, but some of us keep in touch and have formed our own little community.)
- My favorite kitchen tools are my hand blender, salad spinner, and Microplane. Cooking is one of my favorite activities.
- The Outdoor Challenge I completed this year has made a profound difference in my life in ways that I continue to discover and unwrap on an almost daily basis.
- I recently had my hair colored, allowing my stylist to pick the colors. She decided on reds and said she used every red she had on hand. Before the color started to fade a bit, my hair was a very festive selection of reds. I almost regret not asking her to add a green streak or two to give me Christmas/Yule colors.
- When asked the question, “As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?” I can come up with only one answer: A nun. I’m sure I must have wanted to be the usual ballerina-astronaut-nurse-doctor-President, but I don’t really remember. I have no idea why I wanted to be a nun. Must have been the cool outfits and my fondness for penguins. (There is some sort of joke about a nun being a woman who is trying to become a penguin through habit. Go ahead and groan. I didn’t say it was a good joke.)

Self-portrait taken a day or two after I had my hair colored (December 20th or thereabouts). You can sort of see the reds I mentioned.
I am passing these awards on to anyone who would like one. I think all of my blogmates are worthy of an award so please help yourself to one or all.
You may have noticed I didn’t include those Seven Links to some of my past blog posts. I’m going to skip most of that part of it for now. This is post number 1,472. That’s a lot of blog posts to cull through. However, I can tell you (thanks to the stats page) that my most popular post was A visit from the Green Man (because it was one of two posts I’ve had Freshly Pressed) and that my most controversial was The Anvil Restaurant (you’ll have to scroll down to the comments on that one to find out why). As for most beautiful, I like Morning Jewels but that was after a quick look while going through my stats.
The photos used in this post are leftovers from the past few weeks. The weather here in the Bogs today is rainy and gray, but warm. It’s supposed to turn blustery later this evening. Snow is in the forecast starting tomorrow night and continuing through Wednesday. Someone has decided to turn on the Lake Erie snow machine so maybe we’ll get an appreciable accumulation this time around.
That’s it from the Bogs for today. Thank you so much for joining me on my walks and travels, and allowing me to join you on your walks and journeys, over the past year. I look forward to exchanging more visits and journeys with you in the new year.
Goodbye 2011. 🙂
Happy New Year, Robin. I’ve immensely enjoyed following your blog and I look forward to continuing the journey together. All the very best in 2012! 🙂
Thank you, Marianne. Same to you. 🙂
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Your “leftover” pictures are better then “leftovers” .. they have everything … fun colors, reflections and great lighting.
Happy New Year and I look forward to visiting with you often in the bogs in 2012.
Thank you, Bearyweather. All the best to you too! 🙂
Congratulations on your awards Robin! Well deserved! I have a couple I need to address but they will have to wait until next year haha or tomorrow, which ever comes first. I love the self portrait and yes when a child wanted to be a nun..even though I was baptist!
A very Happy New Year to you and yours!
Chris
Thank you, Chris. Happy New Year to you too! 🙂
Lovely photos, lovely thoughts. Enjoy the new year
Thank you, PhilosopherMouse. 🙂
Great photos today. I especially loved the mallards and the lavendar sheen to the water and the green to the male’s head.
Thank you, Pat. I knew you’d like the ducks. 🙂
may 2012 hold health and happiness for you and yours
Thank you so much, Kel. Wishing the same for you and your too. 🙂
Happy New Year, Robin – congrats on the awards; you surely deserve them!
Thank you, CFBookChick. Happy New Year to you too! 🙂
Very deserving of all these rewards, Robin. Wishing you and your loved ones a lovely New Year’s Eve and an awesome new year full of excitement! xo Smidge
Thank you, Smidge. Wishing the same for you and yours. 🙂
Congrats on your awards (well deserved!) and thank YOU for this post! It’s always fun to learn about my blogging friends 🙂
I love your hair color!!! How brave you are to let your stylist choose the color!! Years and years ago (1994 or 1995) I let my hairdresser friend color my hair red. She used two different reds that she mixed, and it turned out beautiful. Unfortunately she didn’t write down the shades and never came close again.
Thank you, Michaela. 🙂
That’s the problem with not writing things down. It’s hard to reproduce it later. I think that’s why I just let my stylist pick the colors. She doesn’t remember what she used last time and I certainly don’t. I get something new and surprising each time. It’s fun. The caveat is: You have to really trust your stylist to let her (or him) do the choosing.
Happy New Year, Robin. All the best in the new year.
Thank you, Bo. Same to you. 🙂
Wow, another photo of you, that’s two recently! Whatever has inspired you to post photos of yourself occasionally, I hope it continues. 🙂
I have a sneaking suspicion that you may be feeling just a tad better today. I could be wrong, but you sound more upbeat, so I’m hoping I’m right. Fingers crossed. Today’s photos are just beautiful.
I’m not sure what suddenly inspired me to post a couple of self-portraits, Joanne, but I don’t expect there will be too many more of them anytime soon. I’m looking pretty scary lately. lol!
I am still not so great, but there are good bits throughout the day as long as I keep the pain meds at a steady level. It will be good to finish up the anti-viral med in a few days as I think that’s making me feel worst of all right now. I don’t want to complain too much about it, though, because it shortens the severity and length of a shingles episode.
Happy New Year Robin. Thanks so much for all your support and comments this year! All the best for 2012
Thank you, Ehpem. Happy New Year to you too! 🙂
Being thankful is a must every day! Love your fabulous shots – your self-portrait is a delight!
Wishing you and yours a fabulously happy 2012!
Thank you so much, LadyFi. Wishing the same for you and yours. 🙂
Thanks for the shout-out, Robin. I have so enjoyed following your blog this past year. May your 2012 be full of more amazing posts and even more wonderful awards.
Hugs,
Kathy
Thank you so much, Kathy M. Wishing the same for you. Hugs! 🙂
It’s been a while since I visited and have now discovered what I have been missing – beautiful photos!
Thank you, Libby! Happy New Year! 🙂
Hi Robin. A great post. I love the ‘After Christmas Tree’… backlit is beautiful! Like your hair colors too…. jane
Thank you, Jane. 🙂
Lovely year end post. I love the tidbits about you. Now that PostaDay is over, I think I need to subscribe to your blog if you are going over to the “when I feel like it” format! 🙂 I hope 2012 is good to you and that you are feeling better very soon.
Thank you, Karma. I hope 2012 is good to you too. 🙂
It might take me a few days (weeks?) to get over that feeling that I MUST post every day, but hopefully I’ll get into a new rhythm soon.
Robin, new beginnings for a New Year. I am so glad to have met you through our creative pursuits online. I hope you feel better soon and that 2012 is healing and full.
Thank you so much, QM. I am so glad to you met you, too. I can’t wait to see what 2012 brings for you creatively. 🙂
I love lavender, both the scent and color, as well. I’m enjoying the pictures of you.
Red hair. Wow. That took me by surprise, but then I thought about how artistic you are and decided it figured.
Congratulations on your long success with blogging. I’m really just a newbie compared to you.
Happy New Year!
Thank you, Christine. Happy New Year to you and yours too! 🙂
What a wonderfully thoughtful post! I especially chuckled at your wanting to be a nun when you grew up!! Boy oh boy, that brought back memories of my eight years of attendance at parochial school …. maybe that’s why the only penguin I liked was “Chilly Willy”, of the old “Chilly Willy” cartoons.
Best of all to you and yours in the New Year! 🙂
lol, GrannyDog! Those nuns can be frightening.
Thank you so much. Wishing the same for you and yours! 🙂
Oh No !!! I just dropped in to catch up and found you ill !
Congrats on the awards, I hope they help to keep you cheerful until you’re fixed again.
Good luck in the New year, hang in there. 🙂
Thank you, Hallysann. 🙂
Happy New Year, Robin.
Thank you, Nigel. Same to you. 🙂
Happy New Year Robin and I wish you the best for 2012. Thanks for sharing your camera gifts with us and I look forward to many more …. but a nun? … oh well, growing up a Catholic I imagine a thought a priest at one time.
Thank you, Frank. Wishing the same for you. 🙂
I wouldn’t have made a very good nun. lol!
Happy New Year! May the deepest of peace fill your heart in this special sacred year. I am honored to know you.
Thank you so much, Kathy. I am honored to know you as well. You have inspired me on many occasions, and I am grateful for all I have learned as a result of knowing you. 🙂
I’m thankful to have found your blog, Robin. It really is one of the highlights of my day to read your posts, and your photography is always so elegant! 🙂
Thank you so much, Dana. I don’t think anyone, ever, has used the word “elegant” to describe anything about me. I like it. 🙂
Awesome haircolor, Robin :). I love highlighting mine red, it’s such a happy color.
It’s been great to share this year of blogging with you, I loved your photography and your posts. It turns out you were my most faithful visitor this year, so THANK YOU!!!! I hope you have a great 2012, and I’ll be reading you :).
You’re welcome, Belen. And thank you! Wishing you a great 2012, too. 🙂
…and a good way to START a new year! I do hope you get well, soon, Robin. I don’t tolerate illness well, either and my ‘whatever-it-is-I’ve-got’ is lingering and I’m trying so very hard NOT to be cranky about it! I love your reminders to be grateful. I have much to be grateful for.
Happy New Year! May 2012 bring you bigger and better things!
Thank you so much, Tracy. I hope your “whatever-it-is-you’ve got” is gone by now. 🙂
I am grateful for the connections I made… Thank you for your blog friendship. 😉
Thank you, Elizabeth. I’m grateful for your blog friendship, too. 🙂