Another Liebster Award set of questions

One of the blogs I nominated last month for a Liebster Award - (read more about the Liebster award here) - tagged me back - heartfelt thanks to Stephanie's Studio:)  I am honoured to be nominated. 
Stephanie is an artist and author and teaches about herb lore as well ... really interesting blog.  
Rather than writing about the whole Liebster award again, I thought I'd just answer Stephanie's  questions here.  It's taken me ages to get around to finishing  ... so apologies for the delay (pleads overwork, tours and burn out as an excuse!!) ... 

1.    What is your favourite day of the year and why?

The second last Saturday in July!!

Last year's pre festival gathering

Fiddlers Green Festival runs for 8 days starting on the second last Sunday.  It's a wonderful week of concerts, parties, walks and above all the coming together of friends from around the world whom we haven't seen for a year.  So on the Saturday we have a BBQ outside, weather permitting, or a party indoors if it's raining, and it is the highlight of my year - hearing different accents and languages and catching up on all the news. 

2.    What fairytale resonates with you the most?

Mmmm I really had to think about that one.  Perhaps Cinderella - trying to please everyone and hopefully having strength to win through in the end.  

3.    What is the most important thing for you to do daily?

Sing for even 5 minutes. 

4.    What do you wish you had more time to do?

Morning pages, walking, and meeting up with friends. 

5.    If money was no object what would you spend your time doing?

What I'm doing now. Being a travelling musician - but I would teach less and get an assistant to help with the office work. 

6.    If you could have one magical ability what would it be?

To turn up at a gig without having to drive or set up gear!!!

7.    With which animal do you feel those most affinity?

Cats.  They are so completely secure in themselves and they make me feel so accepted. 

8.    Where do you go for inspiration for your blog?

My touring, the songs and where they came from and snippets of stories I hear along the way.  And sometimes reading other blogs will suggest a tangent to go off on. 

9.    If you could have a one-on-one interview with any author, poet or artist, living or deceased, who would you interview?
Ooh this was a hard one - there's so many.   Bette Midler!  Or George Eliot.  I would love to learn more about the trials of being a woman artist in a time where you had to write under a man's name to be published.  

Or Mozart.  He toured extensively under the most gruelling circumstances and complained about having a sore bum from sitting so much!! Sounds so familiar.  He was managed by his mother and in between everything he managed to write the most incredible music. 

10. What would you most like to try that you have never done before?

Fly a small aircraft - especially one of those planes that lands on water.

11. Pick one word that sums up your work?

Folk

Thanks again for nominating me Stephanie ... it's been very interesting thinking through your questions.  

On another note entirely, I read all the blogs I follow, in Blogger Reader, but for the past few days I've only been seeing one blog at a time - so I haven't been around commenting.   So glad normal service has resumed. 

Til next time.

Fil x 

Liebster Award

Wow, I was really chuffed to nominated for a Liebster award for my blog the other day - it's like a daisy chain to highlight some blogs with less than 1000 followers.

So my first job is to say I accept 
and then to give a huge thank you for nominating me to 
Sandra at Faerie Embassy.  
She's in Australia and has a brilliant blog - go and check her out.

In Sandra's words  

The Liebster is "A kind of daisy chain made from hearts with words"   

I love that description.

So now I have to 

1. answer some questions that Faerie Embassy set me
2. Tell you 11 random things about me
3. Nominate at least 5 more people
4. and make a set of questions for them and 
5. Tell them about it and give them the option of whether or not to accept

Full details of how the Liebster works are further down the page.

So to start, here are the answers

to Faerie Embassy's 

Questions for the next lot of sweet hearts

1. tell us something that you honour about your Self
Definitely my voice

2. ...your family
my father was a potter and I love that, plus all the generations of musicians that went before me.

3.  ...your home
I live in a cottage by the sea - it's tiny, quite old and quaint.  I love and honour it by filling it with music and flowers and colour

4. ...your community

From our recording studio window

Oh I'm like the Tourist Board when it comes to honouring my village (s) - both the one I come from and the one I've moved to.  We live on the coast at the foot of the mountains and I feel like I'm permanently on holiday here.   I've recently joined a women's group, and run a community choir for people who say they can't sing - it's the highlight of my week.   Plus we have a world class folk music festival here in the Summer that everyone gets involved in to some degree or other.

5. ...your country
I sing my country's praises wherever I go - I sing her music, tell her stories and lament the fact that she's being destroyed systematically by the greed and corruption of the people who have been charged with caring for her.  Ireland is my soul and epitomises Mother Earth for many people.  

6.What brought you into the world of writing?

I've written press releases and biographies for artists for many years - and a long time ago it was suggested that I try automatic writing, but I chickened out - eventually songwriting became a necessary part of my trade.  Now blogging is my fun time.

7.What keeps you writing?
The state of our world needs to be talked about but so does her beauty.  And besides I have a new album to record and it needs new songs :)

8.What enlivens you?

Lovely sunset last week

Singing.   Sunsets.   New places and friends, a lovely cup of tea, summer rain showers, taking photos of my world.

9. How and where do you engage with nature?
Mostly by looking out at it ... watching the sea change every day ... walking in the woods, listening to the birds in my garden.

10. Do you feel connected to a particular place
Ireland in general, Rostrevor in particular.

11.and /or do you feel that you write out of this place?
It is certainly an inspiration and I carry it with me on my travels.

And 11 random things about me ...

1. I learned to knit when I was 4 and won a prize for an Aran jumper when I was 8
2. I believe that cats are humans with fur
3. I sat in a psychic circle for a while years ago
4. Green is my favourite colour
5. Fil is short for Philomena but names have religious significance here and I didn't like people making assumptions about me before they knew me so I shortened it.
6. I did publicity for the Bolshoi Ballet and for Queen and Bob Dylan :)
7. And as Fringe Festival Director the year I left Uni, I put on a concert with Squeeze as the headliners, supported by Dr Feelgood, and the fresh faced young band who did the opening spot were U2 making their first appearance in the North of Ireland :)
8. I have sung in operas, pop bands, rock bands and folk groups
9. My biggest regret was to have turned down the job of singing with a really cool soul band
10. I lived in Dubai for a couple of years and after that in England for a while
11. I speak French, German,  some Irish and a tiny bit of Spanish.

I nominate the following blogs for a Liebster 

Pempi's Palace

Stephanie's Studio

Aileen's Clarke's Crafts

The Slightly Eccentric Diary of Rob Z Tobor
Maybe It's Just Me




There are lots of other lovely blogs that I'm following and enjoying getting to know, but some have already received this nomination or have already got a lot of followers.

And 11 questions for my lovely nominees

1. Do you have a ritual that you love?
2. How does music influence you?
3. Why did you start blogging?
4. How do you get your ideas for it?
5. What do you love about blogging?
6. And what do you not love about it?
7. Where did you get the name for your blog?
8. Where is your favourite place when you need quiet time?
9. Do you connect with Nature and how?
10. Do you like social media and which is your favourite?
11. What are you reading at the minute?

Here's how the Liebster works.  In case you have never heard of it - I hadn't - here's a link to Wording Well who explains it in more detail.

The Official Rules Of The Liebster AwardIf you have been nominated for The Liebster Award AND YOU CHOOSE TO ACCEPT IT, write a blog post about the Liebster award in which you:
1. thank the person who nominated you, and post a link to their blog on your blog.
2. display the award on your blog — by including it in your post and/or displaying it using a “widget” or a “gadget”. (Note that the best way to do this is to save the image to your own computer and then upload it to your blog post.)
3. answer 11 questions about yourself, which will be provided to you by the person who nominated you.
4. provide 11 random facts about yourself.
5. nominate 5 – 11 blogs that you feel deserve the award, who have a less than 1000 followers. (Note that you can always ask the blog owner this since not all blogs display a widget that lets the readers know this information!)
6. create a new list of questions for the blogger to answer.
7. list these rules in your post (You can copy and paste from here.) Once you have written and published it, you then have to:
8. Inform the people/blogs that you nominated that they have been nominated for the Liebster award and provide a link for them to your post so that they can learn about it (they might not have ever heard of it!)

You can connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, Google+ (which I can't figure out how to link to) or at my website.