A new-found kindred spirit in the blogosphere has nominated me for the Illuminating Blogger Award.  I’ll allow her to introduce herself from the description on her About page:

“Sally W. Donatello is an educator, photographer and writer. Until recently she worked at Special Collections Department in the University of Delaware Library. Her interests are eclectic, but her passions focus on art, gardening, human nature, nature and reading. Mostly, she prides herself in being a lifelong learner.”

Typically on a Friday, I would be posting a Weekly Photo Challenge entry, but this week, the prompt is Phoneography Challenge: My Neighborhood…and I don’t have an iPhone.  But Sally recently began her own iPhoneography challenge for Mondays, so check out her stuff!

(in case you haven’t caught on, all the underlined bits are links to those places. 🙂 )

Now, I’m going to share one random thing about myself and then nominate some others for this award.  Here goes:

As a fellow lifelong learner with Sally, I am thrilled to have learned a new word this year.  Phenology.   Spell check hasn’t even learned this word!  Phenology is “the study of periodic plant and animal life cycle events and how these are influenced by seasonal and interannual variations in climate, as well as habitat factors”.   Aldo Leopold, a Wisconsin naturalist and hero of mine, took this study quite seriously.  I’ve been going to naturalist classes at the UW Madison (where Leopold taught) Arboretum for the last few months, and at every class break, the hostess has asked the group if they have any phenology to report.  Well, today, I have field notes that I can share at the next class.  I heard the first red-winged blackbird of this year singing his territorial song!  I was thrilled.  There’s something about the liquid melody of this bird that just makes my spirit soar.  The sun is shining brightly on the piled up snow.   The days are longer and all my photo sensors are doing a happy dance…I feel dazzled as a Tahoe skier, except without the raccoon face tan.  Temperatures are inching up well past the freezing mark, and we’re told to expect rain this weekend.  Yipee! 

Maybe that’s not so random.  It may be integral.  I love nature; I love sunshine; I love being outside.  How about this?  I had a job interview at the US Postal Service yesterday.  Yeah, that’s pretty random.  I have another interview, coming up next week, at Discovery World museum.  I think that one would be a better fit for me.  Okay, on to the nominees for Illuminating Blogger.

I’m not sure if these fine people accept blog awards, so I offer these nominations simply out of my own appreciation for the enrichment they have brought to my experience.  Any response is entirely up to them. 

Interesting Literature.

Jose of JoseRaSan66. I don’t read Spanish, so I miss a lot, but I do love photography and gain on that account.

Jamie Dedes of The Poet By Day 

I’m supposed to share 5, but I’ve only added 3 blogs to my follow list since the last time I gave out awards.  Instead, I’ll share a photo of my neighborhood.

Yup, that’s my car at the bottom of the shot.  But today, a red-winged blackbird sang!  I am illuminated, lit up all around.