A Liebster Award for Shells, Tales and Sails

Jai at blogspot And Then . . . has nominated me for the Liebster Award (for blogs with fewer than 200 followers).  I am grateful and thank Jai for nominating me for this award.

Liebster Award Rules:

1. Thank the blogger who presented you with the Liebster Award, and link back to his or her blog.
 2. Answer the 11 questions from the nominator; list 11 random facts about yourself, and create 11 questions for your nominees.
 3. Present the Liebster Award to 11 bloggers, who have blogs with 200 followers or less, whom you feel deserve to be noticed. Leave a comment on the blogs letting the owners know they have been chosen. (No tag backs.)

 4. Upload the Liebster Award image to your blog.

My Answers to Jai's Questions:

1. If you could have a super power what would it be?

The ability to travel back in time, not to change it necessarily, but to observe the people and events of history. (I have no desire to see the future, however. Why destroy the adventure?)

2. Coffee or Tea?

Both, but my first love is coffee. I am half Norwegian :)

3. Favorite color?

Green. It is the color of fresh beginnings. 

4. Why did you start blogging?

A friend urged me to try. I have been writing similar posts in emails and family letters for years. But my main motivation was to connect with writers who are trying to publish their work.

5. Who was your favorite teacher and why.

So many, really. But if I were to choose one, it would be an English professor in a creative writing class. I still remember his comment on a short story I had written, that my work was starting to sound "professional." Oh, how I latched onto that one encouraging word.

6. Who is your favorite author?
My first favorite book as a girl was Jane Eyre, so I have to say Charlotte Brontë.

7. What kind of music do you enjoy?

Anything with soft guitar and lyrics I can actually hear. Bluegrass and folk. I like classical, but I'm not an expert (I like Debussy's Claire de Lune). Occasionally, I hear an artist or a tune that just wows me, like Israel "Iz" Kamakawiwo'ole's "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." 
 

8. Do you have a favorite movie?

Somewhere in Time (starring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour)

9. What would be your dream vacation?

Right now, a roadtrip up the east coast of the U.S. I have only seen the Florida coastline.
 

10. What is your favorite healthy food?

Peanut butter (because it is so versatile)
 

11. What is your guilty pleasure?

Ice Cream. My first sentence, according to my parents, had 'ice cream' in it. And chocolate . . . need I explain? The two are a perfect combo.
 

Eleven Random Facts about Me

 1. I once sailed a 15 foot sailboat for a week in the San Juan Islands (and still sail).
2. I collect elephants, the first one given to me by my father.

3. My husband built an airplane in our garage and I helped (yep, call me "Rosie the Riveter").
4. The lives of my son and daughter are an inspiration to me.
5. For some reason, I have read Moby Dick four times.
6. I have six grandchildren who live too far away.
7. Gardening is like meditation to me. I can refuel there.
8. Marriage has worked for me. I'm still married to the love of my life. We met at sixteen.
9. Faith in God keeps me grounded when all else fails.
10. I survived Hurricane Camille in 1969 (Biloxi, Mississippi in an air force shelter).
11. I stepped on a cockroach (barefoot) in Malaysia once, the size of my big toe.

 

Blogs I have nominated 
http://delightdirectedliving.blogspot.com/

http://mjwauthor2012.blogspot.com/
http://marymontaguesikes.blogspot.com/
http://gonegarden.blogspot.com/
http://www.inwhichwestartanew.com/
http://dianawilder.blogspot.com/
http://saintlywriter.blogspot.com/
http://talesofthereborncrafter.blogspot.com/
http://depressioncookies.blogspot.com/
http://fillysbestfriend.blogspot.com/
http://annas-adornments.blogspot.com/

To the eleven bloggers I have nominated, I believe your blogs are worthy of this award. I have been checking out blogs for almost two weeks and did not pick yours randomly. I realize we are all busy but I hope you will participate. It could be fun and I think others would enjoy reading your responses. Just let me know when your post is up (if you do). Thanks.

 Eleven questions from me:

1. What is your favorite form of recreation?
2. What kinds of books do you read?
3. Why did you start blogging?
3. Do you read books on an e-reader or prefer printed books?
4. Name two actors or authors you admire.
5. What makes you laugh?
6. Which do you prefer and why: dogs or cats?
7. When or where do you feel most creative?
8. What is your favorite fast food or snack?
9. Do you have a special place you go to relax?
10. Do you have a favorite comic strip?

11. If you could travel back in time, where would you like to go?

Hurry Spring: My Patio Awaits

 "I'll make coffee"

 The robins are ready

 
Now, back to my neglected novel. 
Time to write!!!

Copyright 2013 © Sharon Himsl

Gardening Challenge: Make the Seeds Grow

 
This may seem like an easy task, 
but hear me out . . .

My goal is to plant vegetables and flowers from seed, to fill my garden and occasionally give as gifts to my neighbors and friends. Last

year's effort produced a set of spindly shoots that mostly died in the ground. These were seeds planted in peat pots, placed in plastic trays with lids and located in a sunny window facing southwest.

It is important to know that I live in wheat-growing country, in the Palouse on the Washington/Idaho border. Tomatoes seldom can go in the ground before June here. And . . . I generally keep my house at 71 degrees during the day, which is not ideal greenhouse temperature.

I asked a garden expert, a friend at church who has been growing plots of vegetables in the country for years. "Start your seeds early indoors at the end of February," she advised. She also pointed out she has been doing this for twenty years . . . and uses three fluorescent grow lights.

Aha! The secret, I thought to myself. And here's the key, she added. "Don't place them in a window at first. The seedlings will get too leggy."

Well . . . of course :)

So I did some grow light research online and learned about red and blue light spectrum . . . and frankly, more than I cared to learn. But in a nutshell, here's what I now know: red light is needed to produce fruit and flowers and blue light is needed for germination. HID and LED grow lights are full spectrum lights (red and blue) and manufacturers make some extraordinary claims for being the better way to go.

However, here is what I didn't like about HID and LED lighting. HID and its variants (there are several) put out a lot of heat and require a fan (conclusion: not energy efficient). For someone with an indoor green house, the heat may actually be a good thing. LED lights are still being tested by NASA for growing plants in outer space, which is pretty cool, but they appear to be in the experimental stage and also are very expensive.

The winner was my friend's suggestion: fluorescent grow lights. I was pleased to discover both full spectrum and energy efficient fluorescent lights are available. Just buy T-5 fluorescent bulbs (or larger) and you will have bright, full-spectrum lighting at a savings in electricity. I purchased two grow light kits at a local store, $45 each on sale. Not bad, considering the same kit was $69 online. 

The next challenge was where to place the grow light assembly. We had a portable clothes hanger on rollers we no longer used that my husband converted to a plant stand. He added shelving, and a timer we already had (set to 12 hours of light). I love it!

 

Total cost: $110 plus seeds, soil and tax. Stay tuned for more gardening challenges. I'll let you know how the seeds turn out . . .

Copyright 2013 © Sharon Himsl

Love, Ruby Lavender by Deborah Wiles: Book Review

Author: Deborah Wiles

Publisher: Harcourt, Inc., 2001
Reviewer: Sharon M. Himsl
Ages: 8 to 12, Middle Grade
Pages: 188



This is the second book I have read by middle grade author Deborah Wiles. My first was Each Little Bird That Sings (2005). Both are refreshing, funny and heartwarming. Wiles is a master at ‘showing/not telling’ and weaves a tale with characters that stay with you long after you finish. Travel to Halleluia, Mississippi and meet nine-year-old Ruby Lavender and her chickens—Ivy, Bemmie and Bess. Meet Ruby’s grandmother, Miss Eula, who drives the get-away car when they rescue the chickens from going to the slaughterhouse. Life is good in Halleluia, or at least manageable with Miss Eula around, but when Miss Eula takes off for Hawaii to see her new grandbaby, Ruby is devastated. How will she ever take care of the chickens on her own? One is about to give birth! And how will she ever deal with mean-spirited, “tip-tapping” Melba Jane? Ruby and Melba Jane share a past that neither can talk about: the tragic loss of two people they loved very much, a grandfather and a father—two lives that were lost together on one rainy night a year ago. The resolution comes in the most unconventional way. Be prepared to shed a tear and laugh at the same time. Love, Ruby Lavender was written over ten years ago, but that is the beauty of children's books. They can take on a second life and then some.  This is one of them. 

Copyright 2013 © Sharon M. Himsl

Miracle Ship: the Africa Mercy

A friend of mine is in Texas training as a nurse for service on the Africa Mercy ship. This miracle ship has met the health needs of hundreds of thousands. If you missed the TV presentation about this ship on 60 Minutes last Sunday, here it is:     http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50141230n

Hey, That Just Isn't Right

Sometimes life kicks you in the shins and you want to stand up and raise a fist, yelling, "Hey, that just isn't right!" We stumble through and when it's all over, we are stronger and more resilient, or at least that is the hope. But sometimes the result is more permanent. A life is changed forever, or worse, a life is lost in its prime. It always seems to happen to the nicest people--the neighbor at the end of the block--the one with the barrel full of daffodils every spring, a teacher you remember loving so much, a kid that struggled in school and finally made it in the world . . . Tragedy strikes and they are snatched from our world here on earth forever. And when we finally catch our breaths, all we can say is, "Why?"

Sometimes it happens to someone or people we have never met before, but we relate to them on a human level. We grieve as a nation, as a community, and alone. This morning I read in the newspaper about a British couple I would never meet. They were living the life of their dreams, bicycling around the world and chronicling their journey in a blog called Two on Four Wheels. 

On Monday, they were struck and killed by a pickup truck in Thailand. The driver survived. Peter Root and Mary Thompson, both 34, lost their lives doing what they loved most, exploring the world on bicycles, a journey that had begun in 2011 (from Guernsey, in the Channel Islands). They had traveled through Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and China, and had plans to visit New Zealand next.

"They were camping wild, as they called it," said Jerry Root, father of Peter Root. "What helps me is to think of how happy they were with each other. They were leading the life they wanted to. It was the happiest, the most fruitful of lives." (Associated Press, 02-19-13)

I truly hope it was, and although they died tragically on a remote road in Thailand, I am almost certain they were in love with that beautiful country. It is sad we will never hear their impressions. Their last blog post had a photo of Cambodia, taken over a week ago. I include a photo from my own files of Thailand in 1995, in their memory.

 (Thailand - author's trip in 1995)

Copyright 2013 © Sharon Himsl