Explanations and Goodbyes

If you had asked me a month ago if I had ever dreamt I’d be writing this post, I’d have laughed at you. Yet here I am, with a heavy heart, typing the exact words I had refused to accept. While August was more hectic than any month I’ve had before, I had several other excuses for staying away as well. The distance helped me clear things up in my mind and I had to make some tough decisions. Since I’m the kind of person that likes to do it all, I feel very guilty of leaving things out of my to-do lists completely. Here’s a breakdown of my plans for the future, written in a conversational Q&A format to make it easier for me to address everything before I take your leave.

 

Changing Your Environment

Happy World Environment Day! 🙂 If you’ve been following me from a long time, you might be aware that the environment is something I care deeply for. Since my blogging schedule perfectly aligned with the 5th of June, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to talk about it on my blog. Prior to the celebration of this day, the news of USA withdrawing from the Paris Agreement broke out, which caused a huge uproar and rightly so. But did you know that it won’t come into effect until November 2020? However, when it is clear that those with power are not even willing to acknowledge these important issues, it is up to every individual to make a contribution.

Starlight Blogger Award

Hooray! We reach the end of the tags series of posts today with the final one, Starlight Blogger Award. I was tagged by the wonderful E. E. Rawls for this and cannot be more grateful! If you’re one of the few people who know me well, you know that I have a craze for astronomy, so this award sounds perfect to me. The rules state: ‘In your nominees, think of “the light emanating from the stars,” the bloggers who truly touch your soul with their work, the ones that are the light for you – a true Starlight Blogger.’ I can’t believe I got a nomination for such a precious award! With that little intro aside, let’s dive in.

The design for the STARLIGHT Bloggers Award has been created from YesterdayAfter is a Copyright image you cannot alter or change it in any way just pass it to others that deserve this award. Copyright 2015 © YesterdayAfter.com — Design by Carolina Russo

The Mystery Blogger Award

In my Monday post I mentioned that I’ve been tagged for a number of fun challenges and awards during my absence. This is the second one, the Mystery Blogger Award. A big thank you to the most supportive blogger I know, Sara Letourneau, for the tag! You can check out her blog here. Thanks also to the creator of the tag, Okoto Enigma, who describes it as: “The Mystery Blogger Award is an award for amazing bloggers with ingenious posts. Their blog not only captivates; it inspires and motivates. They are one of the best out there, and they deserve every recognition they get. This award is also for bloggers who find fun and inspiration in blogging; and they do it with so much love and passion.” A nomination for such an award means so much to me! *wipes a happy tear*

As is usual in these kind of posts, it comes with its own set of rules:

1. Display the award logo on your blog. (Done.)
2. Thank the blogger who nominated you and provide a link to their blog. (Yup.)
3. Mention the creator of the award and provide a link. (Check.)
4. Tell your readers 3 things about yourself.
5. Answer 5 questions from the nominee.
6. Nominate 10 – 20 bloggers.
7. Notify your nominees by leaving a comment on their blog.
8. Ask your nominees 5 questions of your choice, including 1 weird or funny question.
9. Share the link to your best post.

I can sense this is going to be a long post, so fasten your seat belts for the ride, folks!

The Handwriting Challenge

In my absence, I noticed that I’d been tagged for a number of fun challenges. I’ll be doing them one by one here. The first of them is The Handwriting Challenge, for which I was tagged by Megan from Invisible World. Thanks for the tag, Megan! 🙂 It’s a fun and enjoyable challenge that gives you a few questions that you have to write down the answers for, so that your readers can see your handwriting. This provided me with the perfect opportunity to talk about what I learnt in my graphology course in my final semester.

The questions in this challenge are:

1. Write your name
2. Write your blog’s name
3. Write your favorite word and its definition
4. Write something nice
5. Write the name of your favorite song right now
6. What are you writing with?
7. Write a fun fact about yourself
8. Write/draw your favorite emoticon
9. Write a silly message
10. Write who you’re tagging

Classic Remarks: Changes from Book to Film in LOTR

Participating in a two month old discussion now because I couldn’t then, but I have so much to talk about. This was hosted during the Tolkien Reading Event that I was a part of with my first guest post. Excerpt from the original post:

 

Classic Remarks is a meme hosted here at Pages Unbound that poses questions each Friday about classic literature and asks participants to engage in ongoing discussions surrounding not only themes in the novels but also questions about canon formation, the “timelessness” of literature, and modes of interpretation. Feel free to comment even if you are not officially participating!  This week’s (24/03/2017) prompt is:

DISCUSS ONE OF THE CHANGES PETER JACKSON MADE FROM THE BOOK WHILE ADAPTING THE LORD OF THE RINGS.  WHAT DID THIS CHANGE ADD TO OR TAKE AWAY FROM THE STORY?

As regular readers know by now, I probably can’t survive a week without talking about The Lord of the Rings somehow. Being the crazy fan that I am, I have decided to discuss not one but three changes that Peter Jackson made and what I felt about them. Let it be known that no matter how I feel about certain scenes, I love the movies and The Lord of the Rings is my favourite movie trilogy of all time as well. (I can’t say the same for The Hobbit, unfortunately, but that’s a story for another day.)

Warning: Spoilers ahead for both the movies and books!

Top Three Thursdays – Popular Fantasy Series I Haven’t Read

This was a new feature I started on my book blog and wanted to continue it here on an experimental basis. Let me know if you enjoy it and want it to become a permanent feature.

Hello and welcome! This is my weekly series, Top Three Thursdays, or, for convenience, TTT. Every week I discuss my top three in any bookish topic. If you’d like to participate, write up a post on your blog and leave a link to it in the comments below.

The topic for today (18/05/17) is: Popular Fantasy Series I Haven’t Read

The Cosmic Photo Challenge

After countless visits to the Diary of an Internet Nobody and being urged by the blogger more famously known as dalecooper57, I finally decided to take part this time in the Cosmic Photo Challenge because the prompt seemed easy: How does your garden grow? This weekly challenge is hosted by Dale and K’lee from Obzervashunal.

I’ve never been a shutterbug myself. Although I like the idea of taking pretty pictures, I don’t own a good quality camera and my editing skills are non-existent. However, if I ever found the time and had better equipment, I’d probably take a lot of pictures of my garden and nature in general. I’d also maybe take pictures of food that I cook, but then I’d have to sharpen my presentation skills as well. There’s a long way to go on that front, to be honest.

One of the best things about my house, other than my room, is the garden. We have plants all around the house, with a lush lawn out front and trees at the back. My grandfather, who built the house, was a plant pathologist. The garden was under his care when he was alive and since his passing, we’ve been doing as much as we can to preserve what he left behind. There are different varieties of roses, some of which he bred by grafting. We also have a lot of fruit-bearing trees, such as mango, jackfruit, guava and chikoo. There are some herbs and a few vegetables as well that we use in the kitchen.

So, here are some average photos with no filters that I’ve taken from my phone camera. The first two are from the Lalbagh Botanical Garden, a famous green space in my city and the rest are from my home garden. Hope you like them! 🙂 If you’re interested in seeing more, you can follow my Nature board on Pinterest.

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Phew! That was a surprisingly easy post. 😀 As per my Friday poll and what I’ve gathered from comments, I’m going to try and integrate both my blogs into this one. I’m trying out a little experiment till the end of May and will be posting a book review on Tuesdays and a book meme of my own creation on Thursdays. Do check them out when you get the time and please leave feedback in the comments section so that I can assess and re-evaluate, if necessary. Thanks again! Have a lovely week ahead, folks! 🙂

Changes Are Coming

On this day, two years ago, I made a decision that brought a sense of purpose, joy and a whole lot of friends into my life. Looking back I realise that I haven’t always stuck to it as regularly as I’d have liked to, but I’ve gained so much from it that I cannot see myself stopping any time soon. On this day, two years ago, I started a blog called Pages That Rustle.

First Post Nostalgia #MyFirstPostRevisited

Here’s a fun tag I was fortunate to get picked for by the phenomenal author and blogger, E. E. Rawls. Thanks for the tag! 🙂 Check out her blog here. The blog hop was created by Sarah Brentyn.