The Liebster Award, and several other things of note

I am feeling fine as frog-hairs today. How are you? :) I am in a mood when anything is possible, even the coming of Autumn, though the temperatures and sulky face of August deny it.
My high good humour was, I believe, occasioned by the signal honor my dear fellow writer, Katie, from Whisperings of the Pen, who quite astonished me with. She bestowed upon me and my 'umble blog (to quote Uriah Heep) the Liebster Award.
I realized I just impaired my honor as a writer with that jumbled entry, but it is That Kind of a Day, you know. A day when knowing how to spell Tuesday doesn't count after all. ;) And so I will trust that your opinion of me is not much dissipated and we move on!


The goal of the award is to spotlight up and coming bloggers who currently have less than 200 followers. The rules of the award are:
1. Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you.
2. Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.
3. Copy and paste the award on your blog.
4. Have faith that your followers will spread the love to other bloggers.
5. And most of all - have fun!

Right-o! This sounds like something I am quite capable of doing, even on a day when Things Don't Matter. ;)

1. Whisperings of the Pen- I know Katie has already received this award, but I had to give it back to her. When I first set a toenail on the edge of her blog I thought, "Oh wow...this is how I want my blog to be!" :) There is the perfect composition of gentle wit, humor, beauty, and some rather posh writing. A must visit. :)

2. Living on Literary Lane- Elizabeth Rose is only fourteen, but her blog always makes me smile and wonder how I could become a better writer myself. She's great fun, and possesses horse-sense you mightn't expect from a young lady of that age. Plus, she has one of the best play-lists I've come across, and she loves tea. How much better can you get?

3. Chosen129- My good friend and fellow-writer, Angela Bell, is the proprietor of this wonderful blog. She has chosen to dedicate it to pointing fellow young-adults to Christ, and I wholeheartedly applaud her in this venture. The posts are always thought provoking, and timely. Give it a look! :)

4. I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud- My dear friend and Kiwi pen-pal, Felicity, is the authoress of continual delights over here. As you can tell from the title of her blog, she reads poetry. Good poetry. And a person who reads good poetry and loves it, and is able to transfer her delight to you merely in a breath, is worth associating with. :) Her posts are always first-rate offerings.

5. E.J.'s Library- Elaine Dalton's blog, and a great one for haunting, if you are inclined to favor the haunting of blogs. ;) She posts book reviews weekly, links to the most interesting of her internet finds that week, snippets of her own writing, and other odds and ends that are most diverting. :)

So there you go, everyone! That completes the pleasant business of the Liebster Award. Thank you again, Katie, for bestowing such an honor on my head. :)
I now will proceed to have two random observations and/or points:

1. My writing has been extremely unfocused recently. I do not have Writer's Block, but I can seldom manage more than a page a day in Puddleby Lane. This is entirely unacceptable for obvious reasons, so I seek to remedy it by starting a new schedule:

"I believe we're part of his exercise regime; a mile's walk and a daily scolding of Emma is just what Doctor Perry prescribes." ~Emma, 2009

But no. In all seriousness, I pledge here and now to work on Puddleby Lane for an hour each day. A concentrated hour, with none of the popping over here and there to look at Katie's new post or turn on Pandora or anything of that trivial nature. An hour conducive to brilliancy. ;) I just need to take my mental belt in a notch and buckle down to real writing. Oh. By the by, Flounder is turning out to be quite different than I expected! He's a big baby, rather like a queer Mr. Woodhouse, and is a little selfish and fussy while being nice at the same time. I hadn't thought it of him.
He's immense fun to write, however, since Cora's first thought of him was of how Dickensian he was...I can give my pen leave to write a Dickensian character. Thus we have Flounder. :)

2. It is almost Fall! I can feel it, no matter what you might think from feeling the temperature. The Gypsy Winds are lurking, ready to dance out at any second, and the mists are starting to hide in the hollows and hang in the fields, and the world seems to know the tide has turned and is preparing itself for the riotous dance of the Autumn.
Snatches of all my best poetry (which somehow all relates to Autumn and Winter) floats through my head and I find myself quoting it:

"Oh Gypsy Wind, ye have returned
To come and tell us all
the gladsome tidings that ye bring:
'Tis very nearly fall!"

-and-

"September's step-sister to August
And she hasn't October's rich blood..."

-and-

"November is a lady fair
Clad in a scarlet gown
With copper scattered in her hair
And gold spun in her crown..."

-and yet again-

"When's the holly's in the red
And the pine is in the green
When the mornings all are frosty
In a brilliant silver sheen..."

*wistful sighs*....I have to admit. Autumn and Winter bring me alive. I love the spring and the new birth and the gentle hues creeping across the countryside, I enjoy the beginning of summer with its picnics and emerald greens spattered with gay dandelions...but toward August I begin to fade as surely as the grass, and it takes the Gypsy Winds to awaken me. It takes the Autumn's riot of color to bring me to life, the bracing air, and the gorgeous royalty of it all to instill in me the sense of being wholly and entirely alive as I realize I never was the rest of the year. Ah yes. I could (and have) easily wax poetic about this most beautiful of all seasons. :) ~Rachel