Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Happiness

Way back on the 8th of June Myrna from 'Night Writer' passed the ‘Happiness 101 Award’ on to me. Things have been so hectic round here that I haven’t had the chance to acknowledge Myrna’s kindness until now.
Thank you Myrna!

I haven’t quite been able to work out if there are any ’rules’ to this award so I am just going to have to follow Myrna’s lead and list ten ‘things that make me happy’ and pass the award on to a few other people.

So with out further ado.

Ten things that make me happy (in no particular order).

Sunsets
Hall, Australian Capital Territory

Writing
The cover of my soon to be published book Veiled in shadows

The Aussie Bush
Fitzroy Falls, Morton National Park NSW.

Architecture
Fitzroy Library, Melbourne Victoria

Flora
‘Pink Fingers’ a tiny native orchid, Gundaroo NSW.

Fauna
Eastern Grey Kangaroo, Honeysuckle Creek Australian Capital Territory

Archaeology
Milecastle 37 Northern Gate, Hadrian’s Wall, Northumberland England.

Oceans
Bay Of Martyrs, Victoria.

History
German Gun Breech, Captured by Diggers Western Front WWI

Thunderstorms
Storm-cloud near Toowoomba Queensland

I will pass the award to a number of bloggers around whose blogs I frequently lurk:

B. at ‘B. Miller Fiction

Mary at ‘The Ethos The Logos The Pathos

Theresa at ‘Substitute Teacher’s Saga

Hanna at ‘Musings of a Palindrome

Cynthia at ‘Cynthia Reese

24 comments:

Yvonne Osborne said...

Congrats on the award and I like your ten things. Very much in agreement with your list. Are you going to post a pic of your all-time fav. tree and send me the link for the Festival of the Trees??? Pretty please. I'd love to have it a pic from your side of the world.

Hannah said...

Awwwww, thanks!! I will post that asap!

I lurve thunderstorms!

Hannah said...

p.s. I adore your book cover.

Theresa Milstein said...

Congratulations on your award and thanks for passing it on to me.

My list would be nearly identical. I'd swap one of them for books and writing. Or two for books and writing, depending on how strict these rules are.

You chose perfect accompanying photos.

Karen Jones Gowen said...

Congrats on the award and to the awardees as well! I like how your happiness points were each accompanied with a photo!

Jaydee Morgan said...

Congrats on your award - and I'm loving that book cover!

You have a great list going there - and since you love thunderstorms, you can have ours as well - I'm not a fan.

Old Kitty said...

Oh wow!! I love the cover of your book!! It';s lovely!!!! Did you design that yourself? It's really eye-catching! Well done you!

And congratulations with this great award! And thank you for sharing what makes you happy pictorially! I don't know about thunderstorms - they make me want to hide somewhere safe! :-)

Take care
x

Sarah Ahiers said...

congrats on the award!

And yay for Hadrian's wall!

Cynthia Reese said...

Your photos make me happy, too! Wow! Great shots!

Thanks for the award ... I so appreciate it!

Myrna Foster said...

I love your cover, and those things make me happy too. :o)

Anonymous said...

Congratulations on your award. I'm in agreement with much of your list. Love the orchid pic and I'm thrilled to see a little piece of Hadrian's Wall, as Northumberland is my home county.

Jemi Fraser said...

Love your photos! My fave is the Fitzroy Falls - I don't think I've seen anything like that landscape before - beautiful :)

Natasha said...

Love the things that make you happy, and your photographs of them.

And congratulations on your award- couldn't have been awarded to a better person.

Al said...

Hi Yvonne,
Pleased you like my list and piccies.
I will organise a tree piccie, I have quite a few but I don’t know about an ‘all time fav’, maybe I’ll have to look for a nice river gum from around here.

Hi Hanna,
You’re welcome!
I find storms amazing and thrilling at the same time!
p.s
Pleased you think the cover ‘works’

Hi Theresa,
Thank you.
I have to concur about including books and writing. I would probably do a different list almost every time (lots of things make me happy), but I picked these because I could ‘show them’ with a piccie.

Hi Karen,
Thank you.
As you know I love my piccies, so finding a way to use them to make my list more interesting was fun!

Hi Jaydee,
Thank you.
I am happy to hear you like my cover.
I love the awesome power the storms bring, but I can understand why you wouldn’t like them.

Hi Jennifer,
Thank you, I am really happy with the cover too.
I did design it (the background image isn’t one of mine) but the over all design is definitely mine. If you are interested about it I posted about it back in September.
http://publish--or--perish.blogspot.com/2009/09/madder-than-cut-snake.html
Storms are scary, and I wouldn’t like to be out on flat country in one, but I still love them.

Hi Sarah,
Thank you.
I agree – Yay for Hadrian’s wall! Better still that some of my piccies of it worked!

Hi Cynthia,
Thank you – it makes me feel good the hear that you like my piccies so much.
You are most welcome, I certainly enjoy your blog!

Hi Myrna,
Thank you! I guess most of my ‘happy things’ would be ok for most people (the storms seem to be the main exception).

Hi Christine,
Thank you.
Pleased you like the orchid. I was thrilled to see Northumberland and especially the wall. I spent three days on the wall back in 2005, one of the most beautiful spots I have seen, and all that history…

Hi Jemi,
The Fitzroy Falls are fab. That terrain is very typical of what is called the “Sydney Sandstone Basin”, thousands of square miles of country that sit around the city of Sydney. Most of it is still wilderness because it is so rugged.

Al said...

Hi Rayna,
Thank you!
I am happy you share some of my loves.
It is also very nice to know you like my piccies.

Culture Served Raw said...

Congrats on the award Al, always love looking at your photos. Captures all the beauty of this country. I just read the comment you left on my post, it is very interesting. I also wonder what Australia's fascination with cricket means if we're to say that sport reveals something about our cultural identity. something to ponder!

Tahlia said...

Hey, it’s great to find another writer with the same sort of blog idea. Though you've already made it to publication while I'm still on my way. I love that book cover. Who did the artwork?

I'm an Ausy writer too and I thought you might like to take a look at my blog about the journey to publication of my new YA fantasy novel, 'Lethal Inheritance’.

You can read ch1 on this page -
http://publishersearch.wordpress.com/lethal-inheritance/

On the home page there are postings about writing, challenges of the writer's life and getting published. I'm sure you'll find much you can relate too.

Where can I find out more about your book? I couldn't find it on your blog, though I'm sure it's there.

Saumya said...

Congrats on your award! Did you take all of those photos? They are beautiful!! I am trying to finish my novel by July so I relate to your blog title and description :)

Great post and blog; I really want to visit The Aussie Bush!!

Al said...

Hi Val,
Thanks! I’m only too happy to share my piccies.
I probably don’t think we can read too much into the popularity of different sports, still such national differences are interesting.

Hi Tahlia,
Welcome to the blog. As you say it’s nice to meet another Aussie on the blogosphere.
I am on my way too, I am in the process of self publishing Veiled in Shadows.
I have to claim credit for the cover, the background image is a stock photo which I have modified by adding an original letter etc.
I will hop over and have a look at your blog.
I have yet to post any of the book (other than the cover) although I have made some posts about aspects of the publication process.

Hi Saumya,
Thank you! Yes I took all the piccies (other than the award and the background image for my cover).
Good luck with your novel!
Pleased you like the blog; good luck with getting down this way someday!

Amanda Borenstadt said...

Contratulations on your award. I like your list. I love how you posted super pics to go with each thing. :)

Aubrie said...

Congrats on your award! I've never seen it answered in pictures like that and I loved it. Sunsets are so beautiful and every one looks a bit different.

Jackee said...

I love Myrna! I'm convinced we were separated at birth. And those are lovely things to be happy about. My heart was warmed just looking at them.

Thanks for sharing!

Mary Gray said...

I love your book cover! I wish I had the lady's eye(s)!!

How's your publisher?

Al said...

Hi Amanda,
Welcome to my Blog.
Thank you! I thought I would so the whole list thing a bit differently this time

Hi Aubrie,
Thanks! I thought I’d do something a bit differrent , and as you know I like my piccies. :-)

Hi Jackee,
Welcome to my blog!
Myrna is a frequent visitor to this blog. I am chuffed you felt good looking at my piccies!

Hi M.
I am really happy with the cover. I guess she doesn’t even have those eyes. I have seen some piccies of the same model and her eyes are a different colour! The photographer has photo shopped the whole image to get the result he/she wants.

Strictly I am my own publisher, I’m self publishing using Lightning Source as a printer.