26 December 2011

Awards

The Laughing Horse Blog Awards committee have been meeting at a secret country hotel location this Christmastide to thrash out differing views on who should receive the coveted Blogger of the Year Award for 2011. Of course, last year the proud winner was chicken farmer Earl John Gray of Royal Trelawnyd in North Wales. He continues to produce a very human and honest blog that is amusingly self deprecating as it recounts the ups and downs of his life which is shared with an array of creatures as well as his mysterious minder/partner - Chris. However, committee member and bird lover Bill Oddie objected to Earl Gray's vicious hatred of starlings and effectively vetoed his nomination this year.

The committee yawned through dozens of those dull speciality blogs on mixed crafts, cookery and flower arranging. They also rejected the dozens of wholesome but boastful "family" blogs that have been spawned in the heartlands of America. Bible-bashing blogs were quickly discarded along with blatantly commercial blogs.The committee noted that in 2011, several previously noteworthy blogs ground to a halt with creators perhaps running out of ideas or simply becoming disenchanted with the very process of blogging. Their loss.

Below you can admire this year's designer widget (thank you Jasper Conran!) The committee wishes to stress that only the 2011 Gold, Silver and Bronze medal winners are entitled to display this exclusive award design in their blogs - either in the sidebar or simply in a new post:- 

Honourable mentions included Libby, Mountain Thyme, Jenny for "Demob Happy Teacher", Jan for "Cosumne Gal", Katherine for "The Last Visible Dog" and of course Senator R. Brague  from Canton, Georgia, USA for the famous "Rhymes With Plague" blog that has been the subject of much scrutiny by the C.I.A. since President Obama was inaugurated.

In third place (Bronze medal winner) the committee have selected Helen of "Helsie's Happenings" (Brisbane, Australia). Her blog is generally cheerful and homely containing numerous original photographs that show off Australia in an engagingly personal manner. Her interest and increasing proficiency in quilting is documented within the blog without ever threatening to take over. She remains unashamedly enthusiastic about blogging and how her blog links with the rest of the world.

In second place (Silver medal winner) the committee opted for Daphne of "My Dad's a Communist" (Leeds, England). Daphne is a previous winner of The Laughing Horse Blogger of the Year Award and though her posts her becoming a little less frequent than before, she continues to write in an engagingly humane style - observing some of the small intricacies and irritations in  life that are rarely articulated. Always worth reading.

In first place (Gold medal winner), the committee were happy to recognise the work of a blogger who like the prodigal son was lost but is found again. His blog contains regular features and is often well-illustrated with the creator's own pictures. His memories of his trip to South Africa have all been worth reading about and recently he has been poking fun at the great Yorkshire nation through his original and fantastical tales of life in mythical Cleckhuddrersfax. Even though the majority of committee members are from Yorkshire, they were magnanimous and unanimous in making this year's winner...Ian for "Shooting Parrots" (Manchester, England) WELL DONE IAN!

13 comments:

  1. I humled by this huge honour.
    Many thanks YP. Perhaps the members of the mainly Yorkshire residing judging panel were swayed in my favour by my huge love and appreciation of all things English and special love of the Yorkshire Dales and the Peak District. Aussies love winning ( and a Bronze is a win for me)so anything that helps to get me over the line is OK by me !
    Cheers

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  2. Wish I would learn to proof read !!
    Of course I AM humbled !

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  3. Congratulations to the esteemed winners, may you wisely invest the riches that will now come your way. And thank you for making life more fun for the rest of us.

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  4. Congratulations to the winners and thank you, YP for my honourable mention. :)

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  5. I really don't know what to say. But that has never stopped me when blogging, so here goes.

    I've enjoyed many fine blogs during 2011, many filled with good humour and plain old common sense.

    I cannot wait for the move to Blogland where is my dearest wish that we can pool our thinking and produce the perfect post.

    I must give thanks to all who have made this possible: Mr Pudding himself for correcting my typos, Mrs P for putting up with me, but most of all, my generous public.

    I love you all! (Eyes well up) Thank you and goodnight!

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  7. FUCKING FIX......
    coughs!!! and looks around sheepishly!

    I had better offer Ian my congratulatons ( through gritted teeth!) and will now hold out the hand of friendship.......

    well deserved.x

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  8. Lord Pudding, me 'at's off t'ye 'n' yer medal recipients. They are all sterling individj'ls and excellent bloggers to boot. Thanks for the Honourable Mention, too. I'd be the first t'say I can't (cahn't?) hold a candle to the winners. Shooting Parrots has been coming on especially late in this year's race, having been inspired, it seems, by the centuries-old rivalry (sometimes good-natured and sometimes not) between the red rose and the white.

    I wonder what a Hanover-Saxe-Coburg-Gotha-Windsor-Mountbatten rose looks like.

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  9. I meant to say "coming on strong"

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  10. I doff my paint-daubed beret at the brilliant and articulate winners and hereby announce with renewed enthusiasm that I will be doing my utmost to raise the good name of The Last Visible Dog to new heights in the coming year, hoping against hope to achieve more than just an honorable mention in 2012.

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  11. Funny thing is SP's not even a Lancastrian - he's from Cheshire..not even the good bit where the footballer's wives live, but the cultural desert that is Dukinhydebridge.

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  12. Well done winners and thank you for my honourable mention...I too am humled.

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  13. Oooh thank you! I think the fact that I've been writing a bit less frequently is but a measure of how busy my life is at the moment (one full-time job, several part-time jobs, one mother with dementia to name but a few! but I still really enjoy blogging and will continue to do so!

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Mr Pudding welcomes all genuine comments - even those with which he disagrees. However, puerile or abusive comments from anonymous contributors will continue to be given the short shrift they deserve. Any spam comments that get through Google/Blogger defences will also be quickly deleted.

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