I am pleased to announce that meliovore received the wonderful surprise and honor of being nominated for a One Lovely Blog award by Vinny Grette (aka Sharon) of Cook Up A Story: Good Food Sets the Mood. One of the most lovely benefits of blogging has been to become a part of a community with a terrific array of other blogging writers, and Sharon’s blog instructs kids and parents to be more engaged and educating in making good, healthy meals – a subject very much after my own heart.

To accept the award I am to ‘pay it forward’ to nine other bloggers whose work I admire (and have not already been tapped for the award as far as I can tell).  I am limiting myself to people I have been following for a little while. It’s a pleasure to recommend the following blogs to you. The subject matter these bloggers cover generally falls around Food, Family, Philosophy and Art/Photography, (the four “phuhs”s):

Ferrebeekeeper: Reflections Concerning Art, Nature, and the Affairs of Humankind (also some gardening anecdotes)

The Food I Eat: What it says on the tin.

Radius of a Square

Illustrated Bites

Writing For Daisies

From Scratch Club

Simple Kitchen Seasons aka The Spamwise Chronicles

Seeds and Stones: A life home grown.

I know this is only eight titles, but I want to save a spot for Clara and Robert Schumann, the married classical pianist and composer, respectively, who are also noteworthy as ‘proto-bloggers.’  During their marriage they did something that I think is very, very cool – they kept a marriage journal, a notebook that they passed back and forth between them, writing down things that they might not feel they could broach face to face. These Bohemians from 18th century Germany really are an impressive lot. Too bad Robert ultimately spent his last years in a mental asylum, but when he could keep it together he had a lot of great ideas.

Also, I am to include seven facts about myself. They are:

1. I am something of a cultural history geek, if you didn’t get that already from the petite bagatelle above.

2. Hope is my middle name, literally and figuratively.

3. Yesterday, I accidentally applied stain stick to my left underarm. I then flushed the area with lots of water and soap, in accordance with the directions on the label should the stain stick come into contact with skin. I have since moved my deodorant up to a more prominent spot on the dresser.

4. I am left handed, and sometimes wonder why this is as big a conversation piece as it is.

5. I do get frustrated about the fast pace of life we (as a society) have configured for ourselves, and how destructive that is to the planet. Am trying to slow down and drag others down with me.

6. I have never seen the movies Animal House, The Shawshank Redemption or Schindler’s List. (And you probably need to know I am a major film buff to appreciate the wackyness of this fact.) Of those three, I think I have the best chance of seeing Shawshank first.

7. Having a child and being a mom is unbelievably great. I’m very thankful that I didn’t miss the experience.

Thanks, and happy summer reading to everyone!