The Honest Scrap Award Washed Down With Lemonade!

On Monday when I stopped by Marcus' Journal to see what was up on his Dharma radar there was a pleasant little surprise waiting for me, all wrapped up in this rather charming retro sign.  I was the recipient (along with 6 others) of  The Honest Scrap Award.  It is a little blogging tag game that I was unfamiliar with.  Marcus received the tag-your-it-tap-on-the-shoulder from James Ford over at Monkey Mind and has passed it along to 7 of us.  (Here is your mission, should you choose to accept it...)  You must brag about receiving the award.  You must name 7 blogs you find brilliant and tell 10 honest things about yourself.

EEk,  I guess I'll give it a go, I thought.  And then last night when I checked my own blog for comments I found the Humble Yogini had stopped by and dropped off a lovely pitcher of freshly squeezed lemonade (better known as the lemonade award) which "is given to bloggers who show a positive attitude, gratitude, and a willingness to share their ideas, support and online friendship. In other words, people who make lemonade when they get lemons!  The rules for this award are that you  put the logo on your blog or post. Nominate at least 7 blogs that show great Gratitude and/or Attitude and link your nominees within your post.  Let them know they have received this award by leaving a comment on their blog."

So it seemed fitting to partake of the Honest Scrap Award (you've heard of those people in Ripley's Believe it Or Not who eat a bus?) and wash it down with a freshly squeezed Lemonade Award.  Ah, a satisfying repast!  So enough pre dinner chit-chat, let's get down to the main course.

Now I must say I didn't notice Marcus brag about receiving the award???? and you know how you hate those celebrity speeches at the Oscar's where we fall into a Sleeping Beauty soporific stupor, so we won't even go there.  I could thank my suffering for getting me interested in the Dharma.  And I can thank my neighbour who through an incident that involved the ripping of much ivy from a fence, the tearing of some then applied bamboo beach mats and an exchange of some angry words for bringing me to a life of serious practice.   There's something about an intense dust up with anger that gets you to see what  a serious poison it is. So pssst, wake up, I'm going to tell you what blogs I love and why ( in no particular order, kinda like me)!

Peter's Monkeymind is a great blog by a serious Zen practitioner who is willing to bare his soul, share his tender spots and does the amazing work of a Buddhist Chaplain at Hospice.  He has a broad range which covers the Dharma, art and poetry.  His site is a wonderful resource and he looks at things with precision and depth.

The Humble Yogini was going to get the Honest Scrap Award before she  delivered the lemonade so I will go right ahead and pass it along.  I have been reading her blog since I arrived as a recent immigrant to the Blogosphere in Dec/08 and am always impressed with her willingness to share her stuff and her wise and upbeat attitude.  She covers a wide span too with lots of reference and links to info on yoga as a spiritual practice.  She is also intensely interested in environmental issues and offers lots of food for thought, resources and inspiration on that  subject too.

Dangerous Harvest  is a blog I've only just discovered and oh, oh, you've been tagged twice here, Nathan, once by Marcus and now I can't resist doing it again.  I hope it's not like a bee sting that sends you looking for a hit of steroids.  I love what I've read of Nathan because not only doess he live the Dharma but he is very funny.  Check out his Zen Cat post, it's hilarious.  

Full Contact Enlightenment is also a recent discovery.  I am embarrassed to tell you that I found this site while googling myself ( that sounds vaguely rude, don't you think?)  You gotta keep up on the gossip about yourself out there!   A young woman out of Montreal serves up some really good Dharma writing with a large side of funny.  I found "The Untrashing of Brad Warner" to be an especially entertaining piece of writing.

An Artist's Journal is another blog I frequent.  I love the art of Floridian, Martha Marshall.  It is colourful, spontaneous and beautiful.  She writes about process on pretty much a daily basis and her kind a generous spirit shines through.  She freely shares little art demos and writes about different techniques that she's trying out.  You feel like you've just stopped by and had coffee with your wonderfully creative and inspiring artist friend, Martha.  Now you are ready to go home and roll up your sleeves and get to work.  I have learned about paint skins and how to create an animoto video for free here (although I wasn't quite clever enough to figure out how to post it to my site!)

Hey Harriet's Blog is a fun site.  Her banner is made up of scrabble tiles and her name is not even Harriet.  A "random surreal generator" welcomes you each day with bizarre statements to expand your mind like "My jester is full of slippery ice floes.  Please spear my supermodel."  This is the home of "The Sunday Shadow Shot" where people from around the world post shadowy pictures they have taken and then you can tour (compliments of Mr Linky) and see as many as you like.  I've been to Finland and Sweden and goodness knows where, viewing shadows.  I can feel Tracey's fun and generous spirit in her comments that she leaves on people's shadow shots and her comments.   I like that there's this slightly exotic flavour of Oz with all the links to Australian sites.

Gallery Juana is another site I visit on a regular basis.  I love her Asian flavoured art and the fact that I feel like I've had a little visit to Japan when I stop by.  There are pictures of Tokyo and sometimes her washing machine or her cat, or her shoes.  And she tells little stories that give you a feeling of what it's like to be a foreigner living in Japan.  Again her spirit of kindness and generosity shine through.

And now for the 10 Honest things.  Should they be brutally honest, amusingly honest, embarrassingly honest, or a combination?

1. When I was 5 I was bitten on the butt by a very large dalmatian dog.  If that wasn't enough, the police officer asked if he could see where the dog had bitten me!

2. When my daughter was a couple of months old I locked her in the car (by accident, kids)  By the time I'd finished freaking out because all the neighbours were out and I couldn't call anyone, I realized the back of the old toyota station wagon was unlocked!

3. I love salt & vinegar potato chips. (In fact as a small child I used to sneak into the kitchen cabinet every now and then for a swig of vinegar.

4. I don't own a watch that works.

5. Once when my daughter was young and we were staying in a hotel we went out to get ice from the machine.  I didn't pay any attention to our floor or room number and much to her mortification I knocked on at least one wrong door before I found our room.  If you ask her she will tell you a similar story about a car parkade.

6.  I am shy and hate mingling at parties.  I might even prefer a visit to the dentists, which I also detest.

7. I once deposited a scoop of dog poop by the driver's door of a young neighbour's porsche when all other attempts to get his dog to stop using my garden as a toilet had failed.

8.  I love the Home & Garden Channel and Food Network TV.

9. I am a self confessed food snob (ie I only like certain coffee and only muffins from Wildfire Bakery etc, etc, blah, blah blah)

10. I get nervous when we're driving through the mountains (which you must do to leave BC) and have been known to hang on to the door handle when we pass big semi-trucks (I'm the passenger in this scenario).  My daughter used to say, "mom's afraid of tipping over".  She finds this quite amusing.