Blogger's Cafe - Reviews

It's not often that one comes across a truly awesome blog. I mean most blogs are good, some are even great, others are fantastic and a few are superb, even awesome, but to come across a truly awesome blog is like finding the leprechaun's pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.


The Hermitage is just such a blog. The blogger is Rima, she lives a nomadic lifestyle with her man in England in a TK Bedford truck converted to a mobile home. I think one might akin her to a gypsy, she is talented beyond words; a visit to the Hermitage will prove that. Rima is an artist, a writer, a photographer and a philosopher.

The blog appears to be entirely original, I have no doubt, right down to the background. She has 97, 75 & 84 comments on the last three posts, so her following is considerable. Her postings are few, 2, 3 or 4 per month, but what she lacks in frequency, she makes up for in quality and diversity.


Her art takes many forms. One of the most spectacular is the creation of amazing clocks like the one shown here. She records the most amazing things on film depicting their life and the things she sees on her travels, beit flowers, rustic antiques in a field to the humble hedgehog, nothing escapes her eyes.

You can discover amazing little things like how to make Elderflower Fritters... yes, that's what I thought.

I need say no more, other than suggest you go and have a look at this magical world for yourself.

This blog had such an affect on me and stands out as so unique that I had to create a new category... Truly Awesome Blogs, which you'll find in Library 4.

A Five Gold Sovereign Blog without reservation:





Library 4 - Truly Awesome Blogs

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Initially I was about to dismiss this blog as a commercial one, but something caught my eye. I knew when I opened it that it was about coins and having been an avid coin collector in the past, it drew me like a magnet.

Lunaticg, an unusual name for a serious blog, was intriguingly sufficient for me to have a look. I’m glad I did, because before I closed it, I had followed.

The first post I read was about The World’s First Antarctic coin: a two pound coin issued by the British Antarctic Territory. As I delved deeper I found a mine of information. While the blog does have a slight commercial air, which I try to avoid for Blogger’s Cafe, the information available made the blog more than that.

The latest post for example, is a great post about a Kid’s Project: Animal Coins and offers a great way to generate interest amongst youngsters and to perhaps foster what could well become a life-long hobby.

Each entry tells a full story about either a token, a coin or even how to identify Malaysian banknotes (the blog is Malaysian in origin).

This is a specialist blog and coin collecting isn’t the forté of everyone. But I am sure that many of you will find something of interest here. One aspect that many will find interesting is that history can be traced through coins.

There are two ways to follow: Network Followers, currently with 31 followers and Google Followers of which there are 289 at the time of writing. Comments are sparse, but this in no way detracts from the articles, but each comment is answered. The sidebars are busy places and there are Google ads, but these don’t seem to be the priority of the blog. One thing missing are links to other sites/blogs that could be helpful, but that is not a disaster.

A well deserved Four Silver Shilling Blog

You will find the Blog in Library 2 – Specialist Blogs

The Balance Beam is a personal blog by Charlene. "Life balance strategy, humor and random overshare," in her words. Her post include subjects like, Laughing at Myself, Life is not a Teeter-Totter, 5 Paths to Mindlessness, Life and Death, Serenity; so you can see there is a wide range of stuff to read.

Charlene also recently finished a 21 day Quantum Wellness Cleanse... now I'm not too sure what that is, but I don't think I'd like it. She came home a vegetarian. She has written a day-by-day blow-by-blow account of that experience.

Sometimes she writes everyday, sometimes not. Often there are 2 - 6 days between posts, but that's not criminal when you consider the quality. A few comments are posted, there are up to 10 per post, not all are answered personally, but Charlene does make an appearance in comments. At the time of writing, there are 70 followers, which is more than I have got (AV seethes with envy). Her blog is clean, there are no messy widgets like my places, and easy to navigate.

There, that's it. I give this woman 5 Gold Sovereigns:





This blog is listed in Library 1 - Personal Blogs 2

That's what I told him, absolutely disgusting, in September no less, he's worse than Harrod's or Seer's.

I opened my browser to share my morning coffee, as I am want to do, I share my morning coffee reading what people are raising in Blogger's CoffeeShop forum. Many don't know that, they just think of some crabby old man, opening the latest contributions, wham, spam, thank you ma'am, and beahaving like the proverbial mountain goat: Jumps from precipice to precipice, then presses on for another pice.... You get the idea, I don't have to spell it correctly. I don't, sometimes I actually say something intelligible (which surprises even me) or make a contribution (which surprises everybody including me).

This morning I was faced with: "Countdown to Christmas!" OMG, countdown to Christmas no less. It's September! For the northern hemisphere it's not even autumn (fall, for our American cousins - I don't know why they can't learn the Queen's English?). Santa's reindeer are still grazing on the last of the summer grass way up there north of Lapland, hell they have only just got over the diarrhea of the spring pastures! And this guy has the audacity to be talking about 100 days until Christmas...

Banksy is a wonderful guy, needs to learn a bit about seasons of the year, but we all have our faults. He has started a blog Countdown to Christmas. Well, what could I do? I'm a social sort of cuss, I head on over there; and low and behold.... nobody beat me to it. I was the first to follow and the first to comment. That's never happened before, I felt like I had put on clean underwear or something, you know that warm fuzzy of feeling good all under.


The blog is tastefully done, red titles on a white background (good Christmassy colours) with little snowmen in lime-green hats and scarves and stuff on the sides, a very Christmassy motif for the first (and so far, only) post (AV thinks - dangerous... perhaps I should put that here!) .

So far that's it, apart from a few Google ads, and a very selfish list of only HIS blogs.

Oh, he has now amassed another follower, Sandi K has been brave enough to follow publicly, well done that girl.

Then there is this comment: "Last year, I bought the wife a holiday in the Maldives, this year, I'll be lucky to get her a postcard of the Maldives given the financial climate!!!" So I fully suspect that a PayPal donation button will be added in the near future.

But then he softens us up with: "Share your thoughts and ideas on here, as it may give inspiration to others as we build up to the big event in 2009."

So the idea of the blog might actually take off, and to think it was spawned by our own Banksy from Blogger's CoffeeShop...

Not awarding any coins to this one yet! Let's see what becomes of it.

So, Ho Ho Ho off we go!

Merry Extremely Early Christmas!

(extremely wasn't my first choice of adverb here)
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The Time Crook is a superbly written blog. Superbly written, I might add, by Hunter whose profile photo bears this: "One day I will insert a clever caption here, and you will be stunned by the magnitude of my genius. Today is not that day." This was my first taste of what was to come. It was this that endeared me immediately to this blog and it's author.

It's actually a difficult blog to categorise, the best I could manage was Random Ideas, and that's where it rests in Library 1. It has stories, Haikus and other poems, random bits and pieces, all that will set you a titter. The blog has 51 followers at the time of writing and his posts attarct 10-20+ comments all of which Hunter replies to diligently. There is also an impressive portfolio of blogs linked. I have visited a few and they themselves are pretty impressive (even if none of mine are there, I don't think he has been remiss, just an oversight with his HD problems) LOL

The blog is not overly pictorial, but with the quality of the writing, it doesn't need to be. It is subdivided into Fiction, Photos, Poetry & Crookery which house all the Home content by its respective category. Very easy to navigate, a good clean, uncluttered blog design.

I fully endorse this blog, read "The Strength of Ten Men" and you will too.

This blog deserves more that the Five Gold Sovereigns I have available:





The Blog is located in Library 1 - Random Ideas

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Read and the Peanut is a wonderful blog if you're into birds. Fabulous photos and detailed write ups about the birds and their habitats. The author is a fierce protector of their natural habitats. The latest post is on Hummingbirds, that beautiful mystery of the bird world.

Posting pretty much daily, the blog has 131 followers at the time of writing and each post attracts 20-30+ comments, to which the author replies collectively. There is an enormous list of blogs to visit, and a list of helpful bird sites.

And what's in a name: "Red and the Peanut is named after my first bird memory. When I was about six, I was at my Great Aunt Mary's house, and she was telling me about Red and the peanut. "Red" was a Northern Cardinal that had trained Aunt Mary to feed it peanuts on demand. Since Aunt Mary's "Red" started it all, what better name could I choose?"

A Five Gold Sovereign blog:





Listed in Library 2 - Nature

This is one of the very first "naughty" blogs that I followed. It is naughty and it is fun. There are naughty words, ideas and deeds mentioned, if you don't find anything humorous about various sexual aberrations, then I strongly suggest that you go no further (or you won't need curling tongs). However, on the other hand if you find such things in life funny and entertaining, then "read on MacDuff! and damned be him that first cries, Hold, enough!" At this point I apologise posthumously to William Shakespeare.

Mental Poo, as the name suggests is in the least irreverent. Certainly, bordering on depraved and leads to serious thought about the mental stability of the author, who displays nothing more than most of us think about, but never "put pen to paper" as it were.

He's always pointing to his crotch and informing us there is nothing to see there and complaining that his bank manager never gives him credit, but begs you to - should you have the temerity to use one of his cleverly obscene or topical "motivational posters".

He doesn't have a "Follow" widget, but his FeedBurner FeedCount is 408, so I guess there are more than just me reading his blog. moooooog35 gets up to 20+ "mental poops" per post and replies to each commenter. He has quite a list of blogs to follow (inc mine) of various themes, not all as sordid as his own.

I thoroughly recommend this load of poop (given the warnings above), if you need a laugh, then check it out.

WARNING! Do not drink hot coffee while perusing this debacle, your keyboard will suffer.

5 Gold Sovereigns to that man...





Blog listed in Library 1 - Naughty