Fascinating Stuff

Well, not really. I've been tagged, again! The Bliss Team has been tagged too by Birgit of Day after Day, That's Life! and that will probably be a more interesting read. ;-). I have been tagged by Lisa of Greenbow to reveal 8 random facts about myself.

Right, let's not prolong the agony and get cracking:

Here are the rules:
When tagged you must link to the person who tagged you.

Then post rules before you list and list eight random things about yourself.

At the end of the post, you must tag and link to eight other people.

1) my birthday is on the 25th of November (yes indeed, that was yesterday but I didn't have time to blog then) and I share my birthday with Kadootje whom I found on my birthday in my garden 2 years ago when she was a little kitten. Read all about that here. As I didn't know exactly how old Kadootje (=Present) really was, and my finding her was a sort of re-birth for her (from miserable stray to beloved pet), we both celebrate our special day on the 25th. Here's a pic of the birthday girl!
Well, one of the birthday girls. ;-)

2) I'm a big fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, my all time favorite TV series (so far).
Don't let the name put you off, it really is brilliantly written and made, wickedly funny, scary, exhilarating and great entertainment. And it regularly gives you pause for thought and makes you yell at your TV screen too, so what more could you possibly want from a TV series? If you're familiar with the Whedonverse, I'm a Redemptionista.

3) I studied interior architecture and design for 4 years and after I'd finished my study successfully I designed my first ................................ garden! I look upon gardens as rooms with slightly higher than normal ceilings that tend to leak a bit more than your average ceiling ever would. I prefer working with natural materials such as wood, wicker, stone, clay, cotton, linen, wool, plants, flowers, grasses etc. both inside and out. Harmony is the name of the game for me.

4) I'm a very private person so revealing personal stuff is difficult, to put it mildly.

5) I started the Bliss garden 1 week before I went into hospital to have a rather serious back operation. I'd had serious and very painful back trouble for many years. It was so bad in fact, that I was bedridden for months on end ( 4 months was the longest period) and I had to spend 24/7 in bed not being able to either walk, stand or sit, but just lie there, doped up to the eyes balls with morphine because of debilitating pain.

A few weeks after my op, I started gardening again, in drips and drabs creating the Bliss garden. Creating my garden and the actual gardening itself was and is a great way to heal myself; body, spirit and soul.

6) My biggest hobby is not, as many would suspect, gardening but reading. I taught myself to read at the ripe old age of 5 as my parents were not very good with reading bedtime stories. I think I've read over 10 thousand books so far and I'm still at it. My bookcase runneth over! When I was at high school (Dutch equivalent of) I read on average 7 books a week. Now I'm down to only 1 or 2 a week. Terrible, isn't it?

7) Apart from being rather private I'm also a shy person. That's why I am able to give lectures to 2000 or so people and not blink an eye or break out in a cold sweet. LOL The first time I gave a lecture the first 5 minutes were pure agony but after they had passed, everything went swimmingly. Nowadays I have to take care not to become too relaxed when I'm in front of an audience as I need that shot of adrenaline to stay focused!

8) Cats play an important part in my life. The first cat entered into my life when I was just a baby. Shortly after she came, my father decided to breed birds and as cats and birds don't mix, my cat Poesja had to go. I have no conscious memories of Poesja but I longed for a kittycat for years and years as a child, teenager and young adult. After I left my parents' home I went looking for a cat immediately and as I was searching I fell in love with those gorgeous blue, actually grey, ones and had to have one as a companion. The one I found was my beloved Chuck, a blue Persian/Longhair
and then, a few months later, sweet little Wendy came, a blue-point Longhair/Himalayan.
A few years later I fell and still am head over heels in love with Russian Blues, for me they are the purrrrfect cat. It was many years later that I found out from my parents that my first cat Poesja had also been blue (=grey).

I've been a pedigree cat breeder, on a very small scale and as a hobby only, for over 20 years. My breeds were Russian Blues
and later on Maine Coon cats too.
I am also an international cat judge, but I do not think the judging side all that important. I'm far more concerned about health issues and I find the behaviour of cats endlessly fascinating therefor I read everything on that subject I can lay my hands on.

As so many garden bloggers I know have been tagged already, I've decided not to tag anyone else unless you'd like to be tagged. In that case feel free to consider yourself tagged to reveal 8 deep, dark secrets about yourself. ;-)



The Bliss Team tag:

1) Name 5 favorite 'songs' :

Kadootje: I wanna go outside!
Merlijntje and Delia: hold me tight!
Surprise: I need food!
Willow: I'm so pretty and cuddly!
Vita: kek kek kek (the bird song she sings to all the birds she sees)


2) Name 5 favorite toys:

Surprise: real mice and ones stuffed with catnip
Kadootje: at bit of string, preferably with a human attached
Dolly: Yolanda Elizabet
Merlijn: feathers
Vita: fluffy toys with catnip

3) Name 5 things you love to eat:
Willow and Dolly: dry cat food and cooked fish
Surprise: everything even remotely edible
Delia and Merlin: cheese, cooked fish, raw meat and thin slices of roast beef
Pippa: cooked fish, raw meat, tuna and cheese
Vita: tuna, cooked fish, slices of roast beef, birds, raw meat and tinned cat food
Macavity: dry and tinned cat food
Kadootje: cooked fish, tuna, raw meat and yogurt

4) Name 5 favorite activities you'd like to indulge in:

Merlijn: snuggling up with Delia in front of the wood stove or on the bed
Kadootje: playing outside in the garden
Willow: sitting on Yolanda's lap
Macavity: seducing female felines in heat and fighting off the competition, then running home and have Yolanda clean my wounds and then hug and kiss me to make it all better again.
Vita: being outside in the garden sunbathing
Surprise and Pippa: eating and snoozing
Dolly: climbing the walnut tree and then pretending that I cannot climb down again so that Yolanda has to get the ladder out and save me.

5) Name 5 bad habits:

Willow: bad habits? Moi?
Kadootje: huh?
Vita: I'm a purrrrrrrrfectly behaved feline person, thankyouverymuch!
Merlijn: you're joking, right?
Delia: I'm purrrrrfection wrapped in gorgeously soft and silky fur. Anyway, that's what my personal assistant is always telling me and I believe her!

The Bliss team have in their turn tagged the following felines:

1) Mungus and the rest of the gang from the Bloomingwriter's blog
2) all the kittycats from Our Little Acre
3) Yin and Yang from Costa de la Luz Gardening
4) Sassy and Tango from Woodlands World, as soon as their personal assistant feels up to it. Get well soon Libby!
And because they are who they are, the Bliss Team has decided in their infinite feline wisdom to tag a doggy too:
5) Lytton from Kate's Smudges in Earth, Paint and Life.
copyright: Y.E.W. Heuzen.2007