In which I interview me ...

By now I guess you're well aware of internet "memes". They're like chain letters but friendlier, yet they still have that familiar little sting at the end of "pass it on". Well, I like tempting fate with memes, so whenever the mood takes me, I half-heartedly participate in the meme, then fail to "pass it on". Nothing bad ever seems to happen, but I suspect if I ever make it to the Pearly Gates, Saint Peter will say "You could have had another five years on Earth if you only hadn't been such a party-pooper with those memes, Jamie." I'll let you know if that's how it turns out, if I can.

And so Amy at her very good "Crumbs" blog, http://crmbsgrdn.blogspot.com.au has nominated me for the Liebster award, whatever that is. Go read Amy's posting and check out her garden, as she's doing some very interesting stuff indeed, and takes nice photos. At the end of her post she nominates five meme-victims/Liebster nominees, including me, then adds in a bunch of questions that seem a perfectly good basis for a blog posting, and so here I am, half-heartedly party-pooping again.

1 Why do you blog?
This should probably be "why do you keep on blogging?" as I have been doing it since 2008. I like writing, I like gardening, I like photography, so for me blogging is as natural as breathing now. I have taken breaks from blogging over the years, but I always come back to it. And besides, it's a handy, diary-like gardening record which I often refer to.

2 Do you have any pets? (Show and tell is encouraged!)
Meet Paul, our goldfish, who has of course featured in a number of blog postings, such as here.

3 How did you come up with the name for your blog?
Some of my favourite characters in biography are amateur naturalists and scientists, especially of the 18th and 19th centuries, and so I've always seen myself as an "amateur" naturalist, pursuing scientific knowledge and understanding in his tiny backyard. It's a stupid blog name, I admit! 

4 What's the average amount of time it takes you to create a post?
Less than an hour, often less than half an hour. Taking, processing and selecting photos takes a bit of time, but as a working journalist I am lucky in that I write pretty much as quickly as I can type.

5 What is your drink of choice?
Before 9am, coffee. Between 9am and 6pm, 'proper' tea brewed in a pot. After 6pm, sauvignon blanc.

6 What's the best advice you ever received?
Duck!

7 What is your favourite season and why?
That's easy. Autumn. Our autumns are warm and are more like the summers I'd rather have. Winter and spring are perfectly pleasant here in Sydney, but summers are a bit too hot and humid. Summer is our worst season.

8 What accomplishment are you most proud of?
Talking Pam into marrying me.

9 What is your most prized possession?
I'm not allowed to say 'Pam', as she'd clobber me. She's a free woman who just happens to like me. So, next choice could be that I'm torn between my full Oxford English Dictionary and my Moto Guzzi motorbike, but the cute answer is "our garden".

10 What is your favourite plant?
Toughest question so far… could be our frangipani, but our outrageous Cootamundra wattle "ground cover" (ha!) out the front of our house has a big personality and extremely lovely blue-green foliage.

11 What is your least favourite task in the garden?

Being on a ladder for any reason. It's not a good time and place to uncover wasp nests, I can tell you that, but "aerial work" isn't my favourite, and I am all too aware of the hospital emergency room stats about old blokes falling off ladders.

And so 'thank you' Amy for a perfectly good blog posting idea, and the nomination. Do get along to her blog and enjoy it, and Amy, I have never seen Grevillea armigera before, but like you I want one!