Hey... I won something.

Well, well, well! How the tide turns. There I was, having a big ole whinge about never winning anything - my disgruntled murmurings springing from being asked twice last week, by two completely different sources, to describe the best prize I had won - I came up dry. I don't seem to win things...or so I thought.

The wonderful Catherine - On the Banks of the River Grande, has extended the Thinking Blogger Award to moi. Thank you, thank you, Thank you.

Catherine is a wonderfully talented writer. I greatly enjoy the quality of her writing. I have recommended her blog to many friends - she is not on my blog roll for nothing. Catherine is currently preparing for the release of her first novel - I for one, am eager to read it. She has a great sense of humour and always seems up for poking fun at herself.

I love her writing style; her use of description and the way she writes about her family. What fills me with awe about this lovely lady, is that she works; has been able to write a novel; runs after four delightful children and STILL has time to turn out witty, wonderful and entertaining postings on her blog. If you haven't had the pleasure already, check out Catherine's blog - you won't be disappointed.

Now as a recipient of this award. I must nominate five bloggers who make ME think, and pass the award on to them. In doing so, I went over to Tracey - Crazy Trace to grab her link so she could be one of my five. But, it seems I had been pipped at the post. She had already received an award from someone else, so congratulations Tracey, you deserve it, and thanks for my SECOND Thinking Blogger Award.

This woman is an inspiration; a word that would probably make this wonderful and humble woman cringe, but it is true. She IS an inspiration. She is amazing. Her athletic feats are enough to amaze, but the honesty in her writing is what ultimately grabs at the heart. Through her writing, she lets us into her day; the glittering moments and the struggles. I am very glad to have stumbled upon her through the medium of the blogsophere.

So, on to the award recipients....I am fairly new to this whole blogging world. I started a closed private blog a couple of years ago, after my brother suggested it as a way to keep in contact with family in Australia. I have only recently, started my public blog, and the comments aspect has exposed me to this amazing world of people and writers. So here, I present my Thinking Blogger Award winners, in no particular order:

Regina - I still see a Spark in You. I stumbled upon Regina, first through Poetry Thursday and again through Sunday Scribblings. I loved her writing and so I went for a little wander through her earlier blog entries. I thinks she is a wonderfully insightful writer, her poetry is beautiful. Check her out.

Susan - Writing Passions. Susan is Malaysian writer. I have only recently had the pleasure of blog-knowing her. Her writing excites me...in fact, her writing blows me away. She is working on a novel AND a play, would you believe. She has lived in various parts of the world, including good ole Australia, and she is definitely a passionate writer. Her short stories and poems are divine. I love the way she can capture the essence of the human experience and make it dance - and no Susan, I don't regard catching up with my blog-friends as a waste of time, but surfing the celebrity gossip sites , now that is another matter....(oh I hate myself for admitting to doing that).

Kathleen - Soul Food. I have had the absolute pleasure of meeting this gorgeous person. She was first a "blog friend" and now I regard her as a ...umm "friend friend". She is a quilter extraordinaire -a skill I greatly admire, but which I am notoriously bad and lacking in all skill and talent. This woman thinks she is boring, but she is far from it. I love the way she paints her world with words. My first Soul Food experience consisted of a posting about a gathering of Kathleen's family. I could tell that they meant the world to her, and the warm way she described the day, and various attendees, made me wish I were part of her family. She is beautiful, and if she stops blogging I will grieve like no other ;)

Shishyboo - Heythisisme...... I first blog-met Shishy when she left a comment on my blog asking me if I were someone she once knew. I said "no", but told her I knew the person she was referring to, and I hooked them back up - the other person being my husbands cousin. I was telling my friend Heather about this occurrence, and she asked me, how I knew we were talking about the same person. Call me naive, but it had honestly never occurred to me that there might be another person with the same name, so much to Heather's surprise, I replied that I "just knew". Since then I have gotten to blog-know Shishy and, like Kathleen, we email now and then. I would love to meet her in person one day. We have joked that we must have been separated at birth, since we seem to share many things in common. I enjoy her straight talking Aussie lingo and her honesty. I love that she has a vent every now and then, and I love that she shares her struggles as well as the good times.

Jeanie - Jeanie in Paradise. I quickly added Jeanie to my favorites list after reading a couple of her fabulous poems posted on her blog, and then reading about her early life, living in rural Queensland with her family; her Dad spinning yarns after dinner at home - from then I was enthralled. I have since enjoyed reading her blog and was fascinated to read her sensitively written post about her experience with a loved one who suffered with schizophrenia. I am also anticipating a wedding ;)...(please don't kill me).

So to the new recipients of the Thinking Blogger Award, it is now your task to name five bloggers who make YOU think, and honour them in a similar way. If possible, try to create a link to the original, Thinking Blogger Award post.