Voting has been taking place all week with the South Africa Blog Awards with some very interesting blogs having been nominated in various categories.

One of my favourites, naturally enough, is those blogs writing about food! I very much liked Sophia Lindop’s “A Unique Food Experience” because of all the lovely stories she got to tell and her upbringing sounds facinating! Take today’s entry, “Go To The Ant!” she very neatly tells us how watching ants deliver food to their queen brings out the inspiration in her! Go and read it, it’s great. What’s even better is the recipe just waiting to be cooked – Fried Bananas served with Ginger Caramel Sauce.

I love reading about South Africa, so even when I can’t be there in person, I like getting updates about what’s happening!

Google Alerts are fantastic at finding out what’s going on and even better at letting you know about blogs writing on your subject.

I have found a number of very good blogs and websites through these alerts and I want to share them with you, so I have created a page especially for my favourites. I will continue to add blogs I think have extra special connections with South Africa and give great information.

Take a look now at Blogs We Love and whet your appetite for a visit to South Africa!

Blogging is the way to go, no doubt about it, especially if you have a book within you.

Tertia Albertyn blogs the much admired So Close from her home in Cape Town. Her blog started because of her inability to conceive and became her salve as she chronicled her journey through infertility to the miraculous birth of her twins.

The blog is written with a huge amount of personality, love, humour and honesty which I am sure spills over into the book.

Now, because Tertia took the huge step of writing the book and chronicling her thoughts on her blog, the book, “So Close” is set to become a South African bestseller and on the international bookshelves by the end of the year.

Congratulations, Tertia! May there be many books within you, but most importantly – Keep blogging!

Tertia also gives out some good advice about blogging in general, so bookmark her site for great information as well as taking a peek at Tertia’s world. Another good site to find South Africa’s finest bloggers is at South-African-Blog-Directory.