Versatile Blogger Award

Goodness, it's nice to be appreciated. Thank you, Sabine, of Kleidung um 1800, for giving me the Vertsatile Blogger award. Thank you so very kindly.

I've waited several days to acknowledge the award because I've a bit of a problem, stemming from the award rules, below:

1. Thank and link back to the person who nominated you
2. Paste the award to your blog
3. Tell 7 thing about yourself
4. Nominate 15 other blogs

No. 1? Ah, courtesy. Happily complied with. Thank you, Sabine!
No. 2? Paste the award. Herewith, with gratitude:

No 3. Seven things about me? Erp. Ulp. Um. Really? That needed a few days, to get over the jitters. Writing about onesself is embarassing. Ah, see below...
N. 4. Nominate 15 blogs. Oop. Houston, we have a problem. I think that the blogs I follow most often all have won the award already, except perhaps a few. This part of the award rules, made to help spread the word about worthy blogs flying under the radar, have unearthed blogs across the globe, and this is a wonderful thing! All I have at the moment are a few that I hope and believe you'll find entertaining, useful reading,

• The Hectic Eclectic, of New Zealand. Mrs. C. is an experienced costumer and store owner. She writes in a refreshing style and invites us in to Wellington, and into her life, so that over time we get such a warm sense of her sensibility, her kind character, and her delightful city. Also her sense of humor. Have a gander at the URL she uses. Love it! If I could visit one truly far place in my lifetime, she's decided me on her own country.
• Living with Jane. Jenni, blog owner, is a dear friend of mine. She's only been costuming a few years, but her sense of fitting and draping are already so far beyond mine. That I admit freely, if wistfully. She's an artist and teacher, and her posts bring out her persistence and creativity. I enjoy following her muse.
• A Most Beguiling Accomplishment, by Cassidy. An historical costume professional, Cassidy's posts often find their way into my bookmarks, for she has a habit of sharing fresh new details. Chapeau a la Spa, a thrice-cocked black straw with multicolored ostrich plumes, circa 1779? Whew! She is also a super sharer: she takes patterns of historical clothing for us! Bless her.

Okay, those seven things about me. Sabine, I'll not be matching your humor, dear. I neither eat meat, fish, nor fennel. So what have you against fennel, eh?

1. I'm just shy of 50, and happy to be there. The fifties are confident. We're past the lamb phase. Now for structure and character!
2. My husband and I have twin boys. This blog plainly tells you that we're dotty about them.
3. Television and movies rarely interest me, with few exceptions: old movies, some British comedies, and the Bourne movies. Unh-hunh, it's true. Jason Bourne. Oh, and 007. Oh, and Run, Lola, Run. Go figure.
4. Languages and studying them. French, German, a smidge of Italian. Now Spanish, because the boys' school is Spanish immersion for half the day every day. Don't have much time for it right now, but declining verbs floats my boat!
5. I like American football, especially college ball, especially SEC, but NFL will do in a pinch. Have San Francisco and Detroit on right now. The strategy! The multitudinous factors affecting the game, the complexity! No other sports, except golf, tennis, and rowing, are in the same league. How's that for opinionated :}
6. I am a lapsed historian, having foregone a career in research and teaching, and what seemed, in graduate school, a pretty lonely life in the library stacks, for the right-now urgency and teamwork of public health. Going after the germs that contaminate our food, our hospitals, our communities, that try to cross borders on planes, trains, and automobiles, the emerging and zoonotic diseases that play Old Harry with our best laid plans and best medicines, that's the team I play on. I've got a small, part-time role, but it's a pleasure and honor to serve, and it stretches every skill I ever had.
7. Tea! Austrian pastries! Furbelows! Spode! Czech crystal! Old silver, coin silver, very old pewter, painted finishes, golden afternoons, old prints, hollows worn into stone steps. Trains on dresses, and trains on the track. Mist and evergreens. Lakes and sailing. Ithaca. Naps. and research and antiques and chateaux, and formal gardens and la dolce vita...