It’s always nice to receive recognition for the work you do, whether it is your job or your hobby. I have been medically retired for almost 18 years and I try hard to fill my days with interesting things that can engage at least my brain, and possibly something a bit physical too on days when I can manage that. Gardening and photography is a perfect combination for me, and throw in some Photoshop and web design on my computer and I am fully occupied!
But it can be a lonely hobby so I was very happy when I discovered blogging, getting in touch with fellow bloggers all over the world. I have had so many nice messages the last 18 months from people who have appreciated my posts and photos. Getting feedback makes the work putting the posts together all the more rewarding, and getting blog awards is especially nice. This month I have received another award, The One Lovely Blog Award, from Kevin, at Nitty Gritty Dirt Man. He has a marvellous blog, well worth a visit, thank you for the nomination, Kevin!
The rules for this award are simple:
- Thank the nominator and link to his/her site.
- Share 7 things about yourself.
- Nominate 10 other bloggers.
OK, thanking the blogger and linking – done that.
Share 7 things....not so sure what other people would find interesting – I can truly say I don’t live an interesting life....but I have often been called ‘an interesting patient’! However, revealing medical facts about yourself is possibly not the thing to do in a gardening blog?? Or....hmm, OK, here we go:
1. I am on my way to become ‘The Titanium Lady’. I have titanium screws, pins and plates in my neck, torso and lower back, and an artificial hip - after a long list of operations. Good thing I don’t travel anymore, I guess the security gates at airports could get a hiccup with me going through!
2. And as I started my post, I was medically retired almost 18 years ago, I had just turned 30 when I had to give up my career, which makes me almost 48 years old now.
3. I have hyper-mobile joints, when I was younger I could do lots of things most people can’t, especially with my fingers. Some people like me develop their ‘talent’ and become contortionists, to their detriment when they get to my age, as they, like I have, often develop arthritis. But some of the things I could do when I was young were great party tricks, especially when I was in my late teens!
4. I have had 7 prolapsed disks, or slipped disks in my back and neck over the years. One of them I got in my sleep, I just went to bed feeling fine and woke up the next morning with a prolapsed disk in my neck. Another prolaps happened during an operation, I woke up from general anaesthesia, with a lumbar prolaps!
5. I am opioid resistant; I have no effect of pain medication like Codeine, Morphine, Fentanyl etc. It has made my 8 operations the last 10 years (11 in total in my life) very difficult to recover from. I also have minimal effect from local anaesthetic for example when going to the dentist and have no effect of epidural.
6. I have a looong list of medical conditions, some of them related to each other, some of them not related at all. Some of my conditions are so rare that the doctors I meet have either not heard of them or have only a faint knowledge about them so I have to explain what it is.
7. Despite all this I am quite a high spirited person with only one goal I try to achieve every day: get out of bed, get dressed and go out in my garden with my camera :-)
The blogs I am nominating are all gardening blogs, they are all very different, but all very lovely. I’ll give you the list and let you visit them to make your own opinion, but they are all very worthy the award.
Donna at Gardens Eye View
Alistair at Aberdeen Gardening
Jane at Tidy Gardens by Jane
PJ Girl at The Pyjama Gardener
Di at The Courtyard Gardener
Michelle at The Sage Butterfly
Pam at Pam's English Cottage Garden
Astrid at Astrid's Garden Design
B-A-G at Experiments with Plants
Tammy at Casa Mariposa
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Let me finish this post with some photos from my garden, it’s been exploding in colour the last week, finally the summer flowers have arrived in my garden too!
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| We have had some lovely sunshine the last couple of days. |
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| My poppies are flowering! This is Papaver Orientale 'Princess Victoria Louise'. |
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| This bumble bee decided to fly in just when I was focusing on the Papaver Orientale 'Princess Victoria Louise'. |
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| Doesn’t it look spectacular this close? |
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| My first Lilium regale has finally opened its flower! About 100 more to come!! |
That’s all for this time, but I have more photos ready for you so next post is coming soon :-) Until next time, take care.
Helene I am so honored and humbled by this incredible award. I also love, love, love your garden....I just want to wander down the paths and explore every vibrant bloom. I look froward to exploring more of these blogs and yours too :) Thank you for thinking of me!!
ReplyDeleteYou are very welcome, and you can come visit my garden any time :-)
DeleteThank you so much!! I am really touched. :o) Your posts are always so cheerful I would have never known you battled medical issues. How do you manage to keep your garden so beautiful? I currently have a sore shoulder and a weird toenail so your doctors would fine me quite boring. :o)
ReplyDeleteI have a garden that forgives me for neglecting it from time to time, I have deliberately made it so I can garden when I want to and are able to, not when it needs to :-)
DeleteYour garden looks so much fuller! I enjoyed your Spring garden and love your Summer garden... so I can't wait to see your Autumn collection :-)
ReplyDeleteYou must be in awful pain at times, and on top of that, analgesia is unlikely to work - Helene it takes a special person to keep so active and positive!
Thank you so much for the award - it makes me feel very humble that you've thought of me! X
Thank you, it makes me humble knowing how many people read my posts, I very much appreciate all my visitors. And my autumn garden is on its way up :-)
DeleteThanks Helene for the award - I realised that you had medical issues but didn't guess that they were so severe. I also enjoy reading your blog. My favourite post is this one : http://graphicality-uk.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/make-your-own-bonsai-trees.html
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you enjoyed the post about the Bonsai trees, I have a spesial relationship with the Bonsais I made myself!
DeleteHelene, I am so honoured that you would even think to award me so, thank you very much. Pain from slipped discs can be unbearably painful. My wife Myra has suffered with this also, She has had five operations, the first being when she was twenty seven. Its so unfair that pain killers are not effective with you, you are indeed very brave and I wish you well.
ReplyDeleteThank you, and you so deserve the award, your blog is so inspirational.
DeleteHelene, I can only echo the words of my fellow bloggers above in thanking you for this award & having great admiration for all that you've been through & still enduring. You truly are the Bionic Woman!! Your photos are beautiful, so clean & crisp. I'm begining to think that dropping my camera on so many occasions may be the reason my snaps are not quite as good as maybe they could be. Wishing you well & I shall continue to visit you xx
ReplyDeleteThank you for your well-wishes Jane, I do a bit of post-processing in Photoshop on some of the photos, but I think the main reason why my photos come out crisp and clear is that I resize all my photos before posting. Photos tend to be slightly blurry on blogs if we post the full size and leave it to the blog to down-size them. Might perhaps not be your camera's fault after all?
DeleteCongratulations, Helene! This is well-deserved. You have captured your garden in beautiful, oblique light! I'm glad the summer flowers have arrived for you now, too! Cheers!
ReplyDeleteFinally summer here in my corner too! The oblique light in most of my pictures is mainly due to me not getting out of bed until late afternoon, but thanks for the compliment :-)
DeleteHelene,
ReplyDeleteYou are very welcome and thanks for all of your kind words. I also wanted to make a formal thank you to you for nominating me for the Illuminating Blogger Award. I've followed all of the steps, and you can read my acceptance speech (it's a little long) on my site.
Best always,
Kevin
You are very welcome, Kevin, and I have just had a look at your post, not long at all by my standard :-) ....will be visiting your nominees, many interesting blogs there!
DeleteTake care.
Thank you so much, Helene, for the nomination. I am truly honored. We have had our share of challenges over the last week as we struggled through a severe thunderstorm, power outage, and record high temperatures, so I apologize for being a little late in my reply. When I read the list of things about you, I am touched at what strength you must have to do all the wonderful things you do. I recall the book you wrote from your blog and all the gardening challenges and rewards you share. You are certainly an inspiration. I will include the reward post sometime this month.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your kind words, I am trying to do things I like every day, that helps, and I often say that gardening keeps me sane and I am not kidding, it truly does!
DeleteYou so deserve the nomination, I look forward to your post and I'll send some gentle rain your way - we have plenty!
Hello Helene
ReplyDeleteThank you very very much for the nomination!! :) :) :)
I almost missed this comment! I post more often now and don't always back-track to see if anyone has commented on previous posts. Therefore I am so sorry I am late in replying.
You had hinted about operations and medical problems in your blog but I had no idea how extensive the problems were. You are one brave lady to have withstood all that you have and to still be gardening! Amazing!! Your blog certainly deserved the award and I am honoured that you think mine does too. Thanks again.
Astrid
You are very welcome Astrid, and thanks for your kind words.
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