I’m embarrassed by how long it has taken to acknowledge this Leibster Blog Award. Earlier in January, Linda at May and September tagged me, and I’ve been procrastinating as usual.

I’m delighted that Linda tagged me with this award, and I hope no one is offended that my very first move is to ignore a major technical point. The award is meant for blogs with less than 200 followers, which means I probably should disqualify myself. Instead, I’m going to hide in the irises and pretend no one will notice…

Here are the other rules (I am planning to break more of them…):

1. Each person must post 11 things about themselves. 
2. Answer the questions that the tagger set for you, plus create 11 questions for the people you’ve tagged to answer.
3. Choose 11 people to receive the award and link them in your post.
4. Go to their page and tell them.
5. No tag backs!

My prolonged delay isn’t completely due to procrastination. I’ve begun this post a number of times, but each time I stumbled over the first task. I couldn’t think of eleven things to say about myself! Which is exactly where I should start…

1. I have trouble describing myself because I feel that I don’t know myself very well.
2. I am the youngest of five children, but I dislike being called “the baby.”
3. I was born in Alabama but have no memory of living there. We moved to Tennessee when I was three.
4. My parents separated while I was in junior high, and my father died while I was in high school.
5. I didn’t take Driver’s Education in high school (I can’t remember why), and Mother refused to teach me to drive. When I graduated without license or job, I emptied my bank account ($600) and bought a mustard yellow Dodge Omni. My sister’s boyfriend was a mechanic, and he helped find the car. Then my other sister taught me to drive.
6. I am convinced, due to personal experience, that wasps are attracted to the color yellow. Whenever I left my Omni’s windows down during the summer, it became rather dangerous to drive.
7. Two years after I bought it, the Omni wheezed through its last mile. My next car was a silver five-speed Toyota Tercel, which I got for $2300. I taught myself to shift gears by lurching up and down our sloped gravel drive. Both of my sisters declined to ride along during this phase.
8. I lived at home during my college years. I also had two jobs (sometimes three).
9. My undergraduate studies concentrated on biology and ecology. I dreamed of doing field research, even though I suspected my attention span was too short to get me through a PhD program. I was right.
10. I was the last of my siblings to leave home, and I felt guilty for being the one who left Mother alone. Our relationship had been fragile for years, frayed by stress and growing resentments. After I moved out, the bond between us snapped and didn’t heal for nearly a decade.
11. When the bond did heal, it healed stronger and different than what we had known before. We were friends, instead of mother and daughter, and the new relationship felt healthier and more natural than our earlier, forced connection.

Now, for Linda’s eleven questions:

1. If someone commissioned you to live in another country for six months and blog about it, where would you go and why?

Most likely, I would decline the commission. I don’t travel well!

2. Briefly describe a travel experience that you learned a lot from.

Hm… As above, I don’t travel well. Even so, each and every trip opens new worlds to me.

3. Name three books that have made a big impact on you.

Where the Red Fern Grows, by Wilson Rawls; Night, by Elie Wiesel; and A Brief History of Time, by Stephen Hawking

4. Do you watch TV and if so, what do you like to watch?

Unfortunately, I do watch TV. More than I should. My current favorites are Downton Abbey, The Big Bang Theory, and almost any nature or science show.

5. What surprised you most about the blogging experience?

The exuberance with which the blogging community welcomed me.

6. What do you like to do for exercise?

Walk and work with free weights.

7. If you could have any job, what would it be?

Novelist.

8. If you could meet three famous people, who would they be and why?

E. O. Wilson, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Bernd Heinrich. Their writings contain intriguing combinations of wisdom, enthusiasm, and curiosity.

9. Minimise or collect?

I confess to both. It’s an impossible balance.

10. What would you tell your 13 year old self that you wish you had known back then.

Slow down. You’ll make fewer mistakes, and have less to regret, if you let life come to you rather than racing so ravenously after it.

11. What is one goal that you would like to achieve in the next year.

Finish and submit at least one of my current works-in-progress.

Now, for my next breach of the rules. Many of the blogs I follow do not participate in awards, so I’m breaking the chain of tags and notifications. Instead, here are eleven recent posts that I enjoyed:

“2013 Marsh Fox Cubs” – Wilden Marsh: Another Year Living With Nature at Hoo Wood and Wilden Marsh Nature Reserve

“A Raven in the Grass” – For the Love of Clouds and Nature

“Voyager” – Hands on Bowie

“Birth/Death” – Sara & the 8 Million Strangers

“The January Birding Blues” – The Pathless Wood

“The Sap Rises” – soul-in-progress

“When Death Comes” – Flowers, Trees, & Other Such Gifts of Nature

“Colors of the East” – The Iris and The Lily

“The Day Our Dog Lost His Mind” – Boomie Bol

“Hello Again” – Simone Lipscomb

“Dynamos” – Seasonings

Many thanks to Linda for including me in her links!

Tomorrow’s forecast calls for more warm weather, so I may not get to my other pending award tag for a few more days. Sunshine calls…