Needs must ... so thank you all!

Yes, you guessed - this is me, with camera in hand!

Yes I'm travelling, but still blogging, and wish to thank all three fellow Blotanists who gave me the HSA (Honest Scrap Award) - I have to say that I'm not too sure about these awards because although I'm honoured, I actually have very little to say about myself, so I'll concentrate on those who nominated me and those I'm passing the award on to.

First let me thank my fellow bloggers - in the order in which the award arrived - first to Jean with her delightful blog Jean's Garden, then to Drew of Baneberry Garden Blog and most recently to Jack of Sequoia Gardens. Please don't think I've ranked you, because you are all favourite Blotanists of mine and I always enjoy reading your posts.

Now comes the problem of passing this award on, because so many Blotanists deserve praise that it seems impossible to choose just seven and on that basis and having seen how many of you have already received the award, I'm going to pick the Blotanists who live in the country where I'm doing my charity work - India - because I'll be there in a couple of weeks time and it is, after all, my home from home.

So my nominations go to Sunita, The Urban Gardener; Kanak at Terra Farmer, who has, I know like me, been nominated several times; India Garden; Zindgi at Lost in Dreams, new Blotanists, Arati at Trees, Plants and More, Zazu at Zazu's Garden and Evergreen Tree. I did look at other blogs from India, but many haven't posted for months, which is why they didn't make it on to my list!

And so what about me .... this is the really hard part because, as I said earlier, there's not a lot to say. I'm just an ordinary person with a great family, lots of friends and a huge amount of energy. But my great love is India and I'm very committed to my hospital project because my friend and partner, Dr Deepak Babel, saved my husband's life last year when we were visiting India, and gave me strength and hope when my father was dying earlier this year.

I've had incredible support from family, friends and contacts since I started this project and it's a bit like planting a garden (yes, that's me planting a tree, below right). We've started at the beginning, with the motto, "sowing the seeds of change"; and little by little, that's happening. Every day sees a little bit of change as the building work progresses, and I shall be posting new pictures when I arrive on site in two weeks.

What I'd really like to do is lump all 10 things about me together and say that I'm motivated by hope; faith; energy; enthusiasm; love; growth; change; strength; truth; integrity and love; and if you've got this far on this post, please, please just support my foundation with your thoughts - sign up as a fan (on Facebook) or blog follower at the Raven Foundation and help me to "Sow the Seeds of Change". I genuinely believe that the more people who think about what we're doing, the more energy there'll be around the project - just like working on a garden.