Awards - Round Two

[This is an extra post - I'll be doing my usual daily one later today...]

I have decided to award a second batch of the Mark's Veg Plot Chilli Awards. Please note: this is not a scheme that will ever produce huge masses of award-holders, we're talking about an elite group here you know!

Trying to decide who should get these things is tough! But, for better or for worse, these are the bloggers who I have invited to accept the award this time round:-

1. Takaeko, from Small Vege Garden in a Suburb (Osaka, Japan)
Takaeko deserves this award for a number of reasons: first, his determination to write his blog in English (despite being Japanese), as a way of improving his language skills. Second, his family values: he shows great respect for his older relatives (including his wife's family), and goes to some lengths to involve his children in his gardening activities in order to instill in them his own love of food and horticulture. Third, his enthusiasm and attention to detail in his gardening exploits (such as measuring the heat-retention effects of his plant protection equipment!)

2. Ana ("vrtlarica ana"), of Moj Vrt (near Zagreb, Croatia)
Vrtlarica ana's blog is one of those which I really enjoy following. She has published some really amazing posts (like the one about slaughtering the pig...). She is also a very active participant in all the blogging discussions. Couple this with some amazing photography, and you have a near-perfect blog / blogger.

3. Eliza Holcombe, from Appalachian Feet (SC, USA)
Eliza's blog has an incredibly wide reach; the range of subjects covered is enormous. But the common theme is practical sustainability - things that real people can actually do - and most of them are things that can make a difference to our environment. Appalachian Feet has also played host to a number of successful blog carnivals, like How To Find Great Plants, helping bloggers to get to know each other.

4. Kelli Boyles, aka Why I Garden, from  Kelli Boyles' Garden (Northern Ireland)
Kelli was one of my first "cyber-companions". She started her blog at about the same time as I started mine, and we have been constantly in touch since then. She introduced me to Blotanical.com, which I know many of you use. Kelli's blog is to me a good example of what a personal (i.e. non-commercial) blog should be - chatty, informal, down-to-earth, but interesting and informative too.

I hope you will visit these blogs, and I'm pretty sure that if you do, you will like what you see...

My thanks to these four good people for graciously accepting my award. As I have said before though, there are loads more great bloggers out there, and just because their names are not on this list it doesn't mean that I don't enjoy their work. So thanks to them too!