A Sunshine Blogger Award I Was Given Last Month

Cat over at The Strawberry Post was nominated for a Sunshine Blogger Award recently, and she nominated me for it.  You can check out Cat's post by clicking here.

Here are the rules for this award:

1. Thank the blogger(s) who nominated you in a blog post and link back to their blog.
2. Answer the 11 questions sent by the person who nominated you.
3. Nominate up to 11 new blogs to receive the award and write them 11 new questions.
4. List the rules and display the Sunshine Blogger Award logo in your post and/or on your blog.

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So, first of all, thank you, Cat!

Secondly, here are the questions she asked me to answer, along with my responses:

1. If you had to eat one food for the rest of your life what would it be?

I think I’d have to go with potatoes.  Because you can prepare them in all kinds of ways: baked, roasted, turned in to chips (fries) and so on.  Plus, I’m a big fan of potatoes, and eat them most days already.

 

2. Is there anything you like to collect?

I collect books, cuddly toys, and stones (as in gemstones, crystals, minerals, etc).

 

3. What is your favourite colour(s)?

My favourite colour is purple.

 

4. What hobbies do you have apart from blogging/reading?

Apart from blogging and reading, I also write poetry and children’s stories, do various crafts, watch movies and TV shows, listen to music, play roleplaying games, and play some other kinds of games (for example, I have recently become addicted to the Dice World app I was introduced to that I now have on my phone... You should check it out if you're a fan of games like Yatzi, Farkle, etc... If you do, let me know what your username is and I'll tell you mine so we can have a game of something).  I’m also interested in certain parts of history, and have a few other interests that randomly capture my attention from time to time. Not to mention everything I’m involved with in the ACB community these days.

 

5. If you could live in any time period in history which would it be and why?

There are several periods of history I’d like to visit, but as a general rule I’d rather it just be a visit.  If I had to pick one to live in though, I’d prefer the time period usually refered to as pre-historic times, when there weren’t so many people, and the people who existed still respected and took care of the Earth.  Yes, I’d be minus all the modern conveniences and technologies I rely on, and every day would be a fight for survival.  But at least my tribe would be working together to try and assure that survival, and the world would still be free of pollution.

 

6. What is your favourite animal(s)?

My absolute favourite animal is a lion, with a horse an incredibly close second.  I also love rats, and most other kinds of animals.  If it’s an animal, as long as it’s not spiders or creepy crawly bugs, I probably like it.  Yes, even snakes.

 

7. Which season is your favourite and why?

My favourite season – which I’m sure comes as no surprise to those who know me – is Winter, because it tends to be colder, and sometimes we get snow.  I can’t deal with heat very well, so bring on the chilly Winter days, and even colder Winter nights.

 

8. What music do you like to listen to?

I enjoy most kinds of music, and will listen to quite a variety depending on my mood, from Jazz to soft rock, and across multiple decades.  But country music is my favourite genre, and the one I’d pick if forced to choose one single music genre to name as my favourite.

 

9. When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

When I was young I wanted to be either a vet or a nursery (preschool) teacher, plus an author; I wanted to have a large family, work with either animals or young children, and write in my free time.  Though where I was finding free time between all the kids I planned on having and work, I have no idea.  But there you go.

 

10. If you were granted your own national holiday, how would people be told to spend/celebrate it?

It would be a national day of rest and relaxation, where people would be encouraged to spend some time doing things that they find relaxing; things that recharge them, replenish their souls, etc.  It would be up to them whether they do so alone or with people they’re close to, as well as whether they do things at home or not.  As long as they did something that made them happy, feel relaxed, etc.

 

For example: I would most likely spend it by myself at home, with a plentiful supply of tea and snacks, curled up somewhere reading.  I’d alternate between reading on my Braille display while listening to music (I’ve found classical piano music to be an excellent accompaniment to this) and listening to either an audiobook or a book on my Kindle while working on a craft project.

 

11. If you could live in any book which would it be and why?

 

If I could take liberties with this question and merge three books, I’d want to move Hogwarts to Narnia, and have a hobbit hole somewhere in that world.  That way I could go to Hogwarts, and during school holidays I could live in my hobbit hole and invite various talking animals over for tea.

 

However, if I absolutely had to choose one… This is harder.  But I think I’d go with Narnia, because of the talking animals and Aslan.  The Harry Potter books might be the ones I revisit most often, but the Chronicles of Narnia books contain a world I’d really love to be a part of.

 

~

 

I never tag people on these things any more.  Most people I’d want to give it to don’t do these kinds of things these days.  With that in mind, if you’re reading this post and want to join in; consider yourself tagged.  And you can answer the questions Cat gave to me – I’m sure she won’t mind me using those, and I can’t think of better ones.  Just be sure and make sure I know where to find your answers if you do this.

Celebrating #Halloween / #Samhain / #NosCalanGaeaf 2021 (Includes A #Holiday #Pet Photoshoot)

 Halloween.  Samhain.  Nos Calan Gaeaf.

Call it whichever of the three you want, or even something else.

 

Whichever you call it - and however you feel it should be acknowledged, honoured, or celebrated, or even if you don't feel it should - it happened this past weekend, as even those who don't celebrate it will know.

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I kicked our celebrations off last Thursday (October 28th) by putting up our decorations, decorating the front door and living room window with the small selection of decorations I have. Then carved my pumpkins the following day, and added them to the display.

 

Here's this year's Mr. Pumpkin-Head, and a second Mr. Pumpkin-Head, since I did two this year:

 

And here are all my decorations:

 

 

Most of my Samhain decorations are decorations from previous years, except for the maple leaf lights decorating the glass of the front door, which were new additions to my decorations this year.  I spotted them on Amazon a couple of months ago, and couldn't resist.

 

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Mam and I did a photo shoot with the three dogs before I carved my Mr. Pumpkin-Heads.

First, here's my sad looking - but utterly adorable - wizard, Logan, who didn't mind the dressing up, but wasn't happy about our choice of photoshoot location (he's not usually allowed up there, and was clearly convinced he'd get in trouble for it, despite me putting him there myself) hence him looking so unhappy.

 

 

Next, here's our happy cute little witch, Lilie, who doesn't usually like to play dressup much, but was really in to the idea of playing dressup for a photoshoot this year, and was most enthusiastic of all the petkids.

Finally, here's Mam's sweet and nervous little witch, Izabel:

Later, we got a nice photo of Artemis with my Mr. Pumpkin-Heads:

 

 

I'd have loved to have included Mollie too, but with her personality there really isn't a way to do it without causing her stress, so we didn't even try.

 

~

 

On Saturday and Sunday morning I did some baking, making chocolate pumpkin spice cookies, savory pumpkin pasties (most of those pasties became Saturday's dinner, and Sunday's lunch, but I froze a couple for another time) and pumpkin pie - all vegan.  Here are some photos of those, including a photo of a slice of the pumpkin pie with some soya squirty cream on a plate:

 

 

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Sunday afternoon and early evening I watched Halloween movies while enjoying some of the goodies I baked, and several cups of the pumpkin pie spice tea I had in my tea subscription box.  I had the tea in my new "Nightmare Before Christmas" mug, which Kelly told me to buy myself when I observed recently that I didn't have a Halloween mug for the seasonal teas to be served in (which I only commented on because it mentions using your favourite Halloween mug in the brewing suggestions for the tea).  Here are photos of the mug, taken at different angles so you can see the images on it fully:

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The movies I watched were "The Addams Family" which is a movie I've seen loads of times and love, "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein" which I hadn't seen before and is an OK movie I give four out of five only because I'm rounding up, and a couple of short Disney Halloween movies called "Micky's Tale Of Two Witches" and "Toy Story Of Terror" which were both cute and entertaining and get five out of five stars from me (even if I'm not exactly their intended audience... LOL!).

 

I was going to watch more movies than that, but my Kindle died, the charger for it was upstairs, and I couldn't be bothered to go get it, so I switched to having Alexa read my book to me.  I'm currently reading the "Skulduggery Pleasant" series by Derek Landy - in case you'd like to know.  It's a very amusing and entertaining series, and I've so far given every book I've finished in it five out of five stars.

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I brought a packet of ghost crumpets when I did my grocery order.  There were six in a packet, so I had two for breakfast each morning on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, with some vegan butter and orange marmalade on them.  Here's a picture of two of them on my Harry Potter plate:

 

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For my Samhain feast I had a baked potato with pumpkin sage sauce, topped with some vegan cheese.

 

 

Having pumpkin sage sauce for my Samhain feast has become a bit of a tradition for me since I discovered the recipe several years ago.  Originally I had it with pasta - which was the recipe's serving suggestion - but I've not enjoyed pasta so much since becoming vegan, and was never a huge fan of it anyhow, so I've started serving it with a baked potato.  Even when I note down on my menu for the week that I'm planning to serve it with pasta, which is what I'd done this time.  Either way, it's a wonderful creamy pasta sauce, regardless of the milk you make it with, vegan or otherwise.

 

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With this being our first year here (we moved here last December) many people still not allowing their children to go trick-or-treating because of Covid, parents who just don't allow it anyhow, the knowledge there were several events organized by local schools as alternatives to trick-or-treating, and the bad weather we were having (it was quite cold, extremely windy, and rather rainy) I wasn't sure whether we'd get any trick-or-treaters this year or not.  But I got some treats in - just in case.  Though I made sure they were something I could eat if no children came trick-or-treating.  I wanted to be prepared for both outcomes, since I didn't want to not have anything to give them if any children came calling, but also didn't want anything I brought to go to waste if nobody came.

As it turned out though, despite only giving one thing to each child, I came pretty close to running out of treats, which has only happened once before.  I mean, we didn't have nearly the kinds of numbers those in the US and Canada get.  We never do.  For some reason, despite the origins of Halloween being from over here, it seems to be a bigger thing over there.  But we did get a couple of dozen kids, and might have had a few more if I hadn't decided to turn off the lights before we actually did run out of treats (and, more to the point, so we could have dinner, which we'd been holding off until the doorbell stopped ringing).  I'll have to bear that in mind and get more treats in for next year.

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Later in the evening - before I went to bed - I did a private meditation ritual, which is my prefered way of doing rituals, no matter the circumstances.  Kelly likes the props and incantations that go along with certain types of rituals, but I prefer the silence and solitude of meditation, and use nothing sometimes, though other times I'll maybe burn a scented candle or some incense, and perhaps have a crystal or other focus object to hold in my hands.  It's an indication of our different forms of the Pagan path, and why our attempts to do shared rituals never stuck, and those attempts were quickly abandoned.

 

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On Tuesday Dad was here for gaming and dinner, and I made us a stew using leftover pumpkin sage sauce as the liquid part, which contained potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, swede, butternut squash, leeks, and onion.  Later, before he went home, we had some of what was left of my pumpkin pie with some of the soya squirty cream, and I sent him home with a couple of the cookies.

 

~

 

So, that's how I celebrated.

 

And now both Mr. Pumpkin-Heads are in my Dad's garden providing food for the wildlife who might consider pumpkin to be a tasty treat, since I sent them home with Dad on Tuesday.  I'm sure some of the wildlife will be glad of the food, especially given how Wintery the weather has become recently, but his garden is more suited to putting them out like that than our yard is.

 

How about you? Did you do anything to celebrate, and if so what?

My #SeptemberSmallThings Full List

Throughout September I participated in the “September Small Things” challenge, where I shared one small/simple thing each day that had given me pleasure that day.  I found out about the challenge at the very end of August via Jo Kneale of “How ToHygge The British Way” who was doing it herself, and thought it would be an excellent thing to participate in.  By the way, you should check out Jo's blog, assuming you aren't already a follower, especially if you're interested in the concept of hygge.

 

Anyway, if you follow me on Twitter, or are friends with me on Facebook, you might have already seen some or all of my list, since I posted my small thing for each day on both Twitter and Facebook.  But I thought I’d post the full list here for the benefit of anyone who either doesn’t have those platforms, isn't following or friends with me on either of them, or missed seeing some/all of the posts.

 

So, here are the 30 small/simple things that gave me pleasure during September:

 

1. The reactions of Artemis and Mollie when they were presented with a bowl full of dandelions I'd picked from Dad's garden for their breakfast.
2. Snuggling back under the covers with Kelly to watch a show on Netflix after breakfast.
3. The "Free To Be Me" call I participate in on Fridays with Patty Fletcher.
4. An afternoon nap.
5. A nice soak in the bath with rose scented bubble bath (one of my favourite scents).
6. Snuggle time with Logan.
7. The arrival of my monthly Audible credits.
8.  A very productive writing session.
9. The arrival of this month's craft subscription boxes from Makerly Crafts and Cosy Craft Club.
10. Homemade blackberry crumble, which was made using fresh blackberries picked and hand delivered literally the day before by a family friend named Kelly (yes, we have a friend with the same name as my hubby) and served with Oatley oat custard.
11. The feeling of accomplishment on finishing a project.
12.  An afternoon relaxing and reading.
13. A roleplaying session with family and friends.
14. Watching a favourite TV show.
15. Having 10 minutes to relax, completely without interruption, in an otherwise hectic day.
16. The arrival of my scented candle subscription box from Sara-Jane Candles.
17. Singing along to some favourite tunes.
18. The arrival of my Bird & Blend Co. and The Vegan Kind subscription boxes.
    
19. The soft tinkling sound of wind chimes.
20.   A crafternoon session with Rachel Kember and some of the members of Cosy Craft Club community.
21. The sound of birds singing their dawn chorus.
22. The slight chill to the air that tells you it’s Autumn, bringing to mind all things pumpkin-related.
23. Lilie's happy wiggle dance, which she enthusiastically greets us with, whether we've been gone for seconds or days.
24. Quality time with the petkids, whether playing ball with Lilie and Logan, petting Mollie, or having some quiet time with Artemis.
25. The kindness of strangers.
26. Caring friends.
27. The comfort of knowing someone is there when you need them.
28. The soothing sound of rain.
29. A warm blanket to snuggle in on a cold day.
30. A delicious home-cooked hot dinner to warm you up from the inside on a chilly Autumn evening.