Beautiful Blogger Award

I am the very very happy recipient of a Beautiful Blogger Award for which I was nominated by my good friend Heike writer of the lovely blog Knitsisters which was also recently honoured. She has been such a great support ever since I started blogging back in August and for me, this is the ultimate in encouragement. I am both thrilled and excited and also feel spurred on as there are so many beautiful blogs out there. My aim is to make my blog better and better. Heike, thank you for this.
To receive the award, I have to tell you five things that you might not know about me. Well, here goes:

1. My mother was French, the eldest of ten children, and as a result, I am one of sixty first cousins. In fact, I am the second oldest of all of them and agewise, they go down to almost the age of my own daughters.
2. Even though I studied Sociology and Anthropology, I ended up an English teacher!
3. My first teaching job ever was high in the mountains of Swaziland at a Mission School for girls. To get there each morning from Mbabane, the capital, we used to drive by the witch doctor’s hut and see him stirring his potions in a big cauldron. He looked ferocious and it was rather unnerving.
4. I first came to Turkey on the famous Orient Express from Venice, where I arrived by ship from Cape Town at the beginning of December in the seventies. The train journey itself took three days and when I emerged at my final destination, Sirkeci station in the heart of Istanbul, and saw the Golden Horn teeming with life and the Galata Tower in the background, I was smitten.
5. I met my Turkish husband-to-be three weeks after arriving in Ankara where my parents were living. Changed all my plans and the rest is history!

The second requirement for receiving this nomination is to nominate five further blog writers myself. This is difficult as there are so many truly inspirational blogs from which to choose but I limited myself by choosing cookery-related ones:

• Burcu, Turkish but living in the States, writes Almost Turkish Recipes and she does it really really well. I particularly like her header and format.
• Özlem’s Turkish Table is another really good blog. I like this one because she is Turkish but lives in England and also visits Istanbul from time to time so there are certainly aspects that I can identify with. Her photos and recipes are great.
• Then there is a lovely French blog written (in English) by Barbara called Cuisine de Provence Provence. Being half French, and with cousins living in Provence where we often go, I can really identify with the food and people that she portrays.
• There is an adorable cooking blog called Just My Delicious written by Paula who is Polish. The blog is in Polish but luckily there is a translation button. I like it because it is colourful and original with terrific photos.
• And the last one is called Filiz’in Mutfağı, which means Filiz’ Kitchen. I love the huge photos she puts of the delicious things she cooks. It’s in Turkish but the photos alone are worth a look.

I still have a lot to learn in this wonderful world of blogging but I am enjoying the journey immensely. Thank you for this nomination, Heike. I am thrilled.

By the way, coincidentally my blog is right in the middle of a makeover so please don't go away!