Honest scrap award

Once Upon an Equine (love that name!) has kindly presented me with Honest Scrap award.
I love that name too!

Thanks for the award, Once Upon!

Once Upon an Equine has a very nice blog where she describes her life with her two equine partners, Misty and Marley. As Marley is a Norwegian Fjord horse I find it extra entertaining to follow a countryman abroad. But what I love most is her wonderful sense of humour. I always leave her blog in a good mood. She also has lovely pictures in her blog.
Go look for yourself on Once Upon an Equine.


When you receive The Honest Scrap award you must stick to some rules:
Recognize your award presenter and link back to their blog in your post.
List 10 honest things about yourself that others might not now.
Present this award to 10 admirable bloggers and link to their blogs.
Leave a comment on your recipients' blogs to let them know to visit your post to retrieve their award.

Here are 10 honest scraps about me:

1. I am addicted to my mp3-player.
Yes, I listen to music too, but mainly to audio books.
I sleep very light, and had earlier problems to get back to sleep when I woke up, but not anymore. I just plug a book in the ear and voilá! Sound asleep within 5 mins.
No, the sleeping books cannot be too exciting...best is one that you have read before, so if you lose a bit here and there you know what happens anyway.
Apart from that, you have always a book handy even if you are in situations where you normally couldn't read. Driving, cooking.
And it weighs less than books too.
I also enjoy the extra colour you get to the story when it is read by someone that does a good job. It is like a portable bed time story by a professional.

2. I don't mind insects. In fact, I try to save them by carrying them out of the house when they have lost their way. I draw the line with flies and mosquitoes though.

3. When our daughter was younger she used to twirl my hair between her fingers to get to sleep. In the end I had very little hair left on one side. Lucky there was a lot to start with.

4. I love to read. Always have. I was definitely one of those that pretended to be sound asleep at bedtime when I heard one of my parent’s footsteps, but turned on the bed lamp once they had checked. My favourite books are like good friends, I read them over and over again.

5. When I was a child and woke at night, I was convinced that there were wolves under my bed. I had to stand up in the bed and take a giant leap out of it (so the wolves couldn't lock their jaws around my ankles) and RUN over to my parent's bed. Funny, they never had any wolves under theirs.

6. I am very fond of a traditional Swedish dish that is called "Janssons frestelse" (Jansson's temptation). It is a potato gratin with onions, anchovies and cream. Sounds funny, but tastes very good. Especially with a cold beer. And I won't say no to schnapps together with it either.

7. If I get bad weather when we have our summer vacation, I get depressed and stressed. We have a short summer, and if I feel that the few days that I am free will only be rainy and grey, I start to hyperventilate. Entering the dark and cold period without a summer is hard. The salvation lies in cheap flights and kind family and friends that can take care of our cats. South of Europe is sunny, TG.

8. When my parents told me to clean up my room as a child, I always got VERY tired and sleepy. Now I am 46 and I still get very tired when I am to clean the house. I believe I have an allergy. I keep my horse tack clean and tidy though.

9. I love apple juice. Not the sweet, slightly artificial ones you get on cartons, but the slightly sour juice that is pressed and bottled. When I was a child and visited my grandparents, I always got my grandfather's apple juice (the local gardeners shared a small juice press and bottled in the autumn) and my grandmother's cinnamon buns. I love cinnamon buns too.

10. I am Swedish, but have been living in Norway near half my life. Even if the countries have much in common, there are some differences. Problem is that I am now losing touch with what is happening in Sweden. When I am home with my parents the TV screen is full of new faces. So I guess I am a little in between. Swegian.


And now I have the pleasure to pass on this award to 10 other bloggers.
You have to excuse me; two of the blogs are Scandinavian and thus a bit difficult to read for people outside Scandinavia - but on the other hand it might be a good idea to spread the award outside the English hemisphere?
I would like to make a request to the Scandinavian bloggers though - if it doesn't feel too awkward, would you mind writing your post about the award in English, please?


1. My first on the list is Helen in UK at New Beginnings. I am a bit ambivalent in awarding something with "scrap" in it to Helen as she has nothing of the kind in her blog. She lost her lifelong partner a while ago and makes a very honest and brave attempt to write about how to go on in life. In addition to learning to live with the loss, she has to take care of a farm by herself now and deal with everything including learning how to drive. And in the mid of this she has a lovely sense of humour! Please take this as an encouragement, Helen - I hope you do!

2. RuckusButt at Food, life She likes food in addition to horses and dogs, and hands out some nice recepies too which I appreciate as I love good food. Thanks RB! She also rides a Norwegian Fjord sometimes, so that was how I found her. Her blog is a nice mixture of everything.

4. And then Irene in Sweden at Disco Dancer, which is the name of Irene's beautiful horse, a 5 yo SWB. Her blog is in Swedish, and she writes mostly about her horse life. She has made a blog series about her horse life as a child/teenager that I have enjoyed much. Even if we don't know each other apart from our blogs, her pictures bring back memories to me from the same age.

5. Anne i Hannover. Anne is a good friend of mine who has moved down to Hannover, Germany to study to be a vet. She is a dressage nerd too, so a positive bonus is the central location to major shows. If she gets time to leave the books that is. Her blog is in Norwegian.

6. Sage beasties. She writes not only about her horses but about her cats too, and being a cat owner I enjoy her stories. Nice pictures too.

7. ~C at Go, Diego Go. ~C has an endurance horse called Diego, and her blog is about training him. I believe she has been really unlucky this last half year with accidents. Keep hanging in there, ~C!

8. wilsonc at Canterbalance. She fulfilled a dream and bought her horse as an adult, and has a very nice blog where she shares her horse life.

9. Stephanie at the Aspiring Equestrian. She has an OTTB, and she likes dressage, just like me.

10. Now I know that some of my favourite blogs have received this award earlier. So on the last post, I just want to say that I enjoy your blogs and give the award once again to you anyway.
To share :-)
You don't have to pass it on once again!
Grey Horse Matters
Nuzzling Muzzles
A year with horses and
Highland Hooves.

I believe the award is a good way to get to know other readable blogs, so thanks to Once Upon once again, and also thanks to the original inventor of the award!

(Stillearning, I will post something over the weekend. It has been lovely weather here so I try to stay away from the PC to enjoy the summer days that we get…)