Blog Awards

Thanks to Katy at The Good Life in Practice for my One Lovely Blog/Very Inspiring Blogger Award.

This award comes with a bit of work attached, henceforth known as The Rules:

1. Thank the person who nominated you.
2. Add The One Lovely Blog Award / The Very Inspiring Blogger Award to your post.
3. Share 7 things about yourself.
4. Pass the award on to 10 nominees.
5. Include this set of rules.
6. Inform your nominees by posting a comment on their blogs.

So 7 things about The Smallest Smallholding (and me):

1. I started this blog in 2007, a scary almost-six years ago. I was 24, just out of university, and I had four ex-battery hens named after Beatle wives – Yoko, Maureen, Cynthia and Pattie. They’ve all now passed into the big chicken coop in the sky due to natural causes, but they were my first foray into the Good Life, and I loved them so much.

2. I have been a vegetarian for almost 21 years, and now I’m straying into the realms of veganism. It’s a logical step for me. Please don’t ask me where I get my protein. I get loads of it. And I grow some of it myself!

3. Our patch of land that we grow our veggies on used to be part of a larger market garden, during the Victorian and Edwardian era. Our only surviving relic of that time – a Victoria plum tree – finally gave in last year, when the heavy crop of plums pulled down the last large bough on it. We’re keeping the plum tree stump and turning it into a bird feeding station.

4. The first crops I grew were carrots, onions and garlic. I started with one tiny plot, and this year I’m planning on more. But our old patch of market garden was also used as a dumping ground for a builder in the 1970s, so the closer we get to one boundary line, the more bricks and rubble we have to dig through to get decent soil.

5. I really, really want to create a wildlife pond, but I’m still not sure where the best place to site it is.

6. I only ever take photos from angles where you can’t see the crap bits of our Smallest Smallholding (90% of it) – wheelbarrow full of rubble, broken tools, rotting shed, etc. Anyone that actually saw my Smallest Smallholding in person would laugh in my face. I want to change that this year.

7. 2012 was an utterly shambolic year as far as vegetable growing was concerned. I always feel that I get to wipe the slate clean and have another go at the beginning of each season – it keeps me sane.

Here are my nominees for the award:

1. Sue – Our New Life in the Country

2. Poppy – A Life Less Simple

3. Geoff – Guide to Gay Gardening

4. Karen – The Garden Smallholder

5. Amy – Turn to the Music

6. Helen – Downloand Views

7. Compostwoman – The Compost Bin

8. Tiny Farm Blog

9. ITFarmer

10. Robin – Red Breasted Bird (the red red robin goes blog blog blogging along)