The Award Game

Many thanks to Miss Yves, whose Photograff blog I always enjoy, for offering me a Creative Blogger prize! I've been trying to make up my mind what to do about these prizes -- they all require time to complete the requirements and they all ask that you pass them on to other bloggers.

Up till now, I've happily participated but, more and more I'm finding that many blogs don't accept prizes, just because they are so time consuming. So I'm going to do as they have and say thank you but I just can't play the award game any more. The daily blogging is time consuming enough!

All the blogs over there on my sidebar are deserving of prizes! I love visiting them, whether in North Carolina, Chile, Missouri, Austria, Ohio, France, California, Maine, Ireland, New Jersey, England -- you get the idea. I love this virtual travel. And I feel like these are my friends. So unconditional awards for everyone!!!

And now some recent photos . . .

This is a little old-timey filling station that some clever person has restored in the nearby community of Walnut.

An old headstone in the cemetery surrounding a no longer used church, also in Walnut.

The graveyard continues across the street and creeps up into the woods.

More autumn leaves -- these from Sweet Gum (Liquidambar) trees in the parking lot of our local Tractor Supply store. The shapes of the leaves and the wide range of colors are breathtaking! I'm going to have to think where we might plant one.

Of Beans and Blogs . . . and Zucchini Too

Oh, dear, the beans are in. I picked on Sunday and somehow there were twice as many on Monday.

The slender tender beans on the right got steamed briefly and marinated with red onion slices, to accompany John's homemade pizza. The bigger ones got a three-minute blanching and went into the freezer.

And then there' was the zucchini -- the chickens got the biggest one; I grated two more to freeze for zucchini bread; and blanched some more to freeze for minestrone come winter.

And now, re blogs: Margie, of Margie's Crafts recently gave me the One Lovely Blog award. Check out her blog for great pictures of Ireland . . . and possible the cutest car I've ever seen. And thanks, Margie -- I love this kind of travel!

Closer to home, Sam of My Carolina Kitchen just presented this blog with the SPLASH award. Sam is a foodie and you should avoid her blog if you don't want to be stricken with immediate hunger. Right now she's got a recipe for seared tuna and Asian slaw that has me drooling. And the previous post is of a BLT that is as close to the Platonic ideal as they come. And the corn cakes a while back-- I've made them multiple times now . . . oh boy! Thanks, Sam, for the award and the calories!

And one last thing -- I had an email from 'a leading broker of internet advertising.' They would like, in exchange for an annual fee, to place an advertisement on my blog.

Yikes! I wonder what that annual fee might be? And what they'd be advertising? But I just replied that I wasn't interested. It would feel a bit like tattooing a big logo on my forehead.

Last night's pizza . . . with beans on the side.