Wednesday Hodgepodge - 29/4/26

Joyce provides the questions, we prepare our answers and then we link up here.

1. Are you feeling more reset, restart, or full speed ahead as we move into May? Tell us why.

Definitely not full speed ahead.  I need to reset.  I've spent a lot of time blogging during April with the A-Z challenge and I've done less walking.  I've also done more eating....I'm sure you're getting the picture.  A return to healthier eating and habits is required lol. 

2. Painting, sculpture, architecture, literature, cinema, theatre, music...what's your favourite form of art? Elaborate.

  

Definitely literature.  I love to read and now that I've joined two book clubs the reading has become more varied and challenging.

3. What time is dinner at your house? How do you feel about leftovers? 

Dinner time is flexible but most often it will be between 6-7 pm.  As we're both retired we sometimes switch it around and make lunch into a dinner and then have something light later on depending on our plans.

We try not to do leftovers but often meals for 2 will be made as a meal for 4 with the extra 2 going into the freezer.  But we will use up leftovers as and when necessary.

4.What's the last thing you fell down a rabbit hole investigating? 

I can't remember anything specific but I do know how easy it is to get sucked into social media and end up in rabbit holes.

5. And now for a question from the book Marilyn (Memphis Bridges) gave me...

At what are you 'self-taught?' 

Umm blogging?  My cousin got me hooked and I've used various platforms over the years and muddled myself through the changes.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

So here's my dilemma.  I hate wasting food and currently I have a couple of pain au chocolat in the house.  Plus a bar of chocolate that I started.  Not to mention several packets of biscuits.  All bought for when we had visitors.  (Well mostly.) Now the biscuits will keep. But the pain au chocolat need to be eaten and of course a started bar of chocolate has to be finished.  But I need to eat healthily.  The scales do not lie unfortunately.  Plus there's the looming annual blood test coming up soon and I want to keep myself out of the pre-diabetic range.  But I can't throw good food away, can I?  

Maybe now that the A-Z challenge is finished I should start posting about how good (or badly) I've done each day.  One square of chocolate each day is ok isn't it?  (Only positive answers please!)

Y is for Young (A-Z Challenge 2026) 29/4/26

The A-Z home page can be found here.

My theme this year is authors that I've read. More about the books I've read than the authors themselves.

I'm an avid reader. I'm a member of 2 in person reading groups through my local library. I'm gradually working my way through an old BBC reading list of 100 books (I'm about half way through) and I'm taking part in the online 52 Book Club Challenge for the third time this year where the challenge is to read 52 books over the year based on 52 different prompts. You can also find me on Goodreads here

The Y authors I've read are:

• Young Louisa

I was slightly surprised to see I only had one Y author on my list but Louisa Young's "My Dear I wanted to tell you" was definitely a 4 star read for me.  

I read it back in 2019 and my review was, "A very poignant story that details the WW1 experiences of Riley Purefoy and the love of his life, Nadine Waveney.  It's a grim reminder of how awful life was in the trenches and an insight into the terrible injuries soldiers received and how medical advances enabled facial injuries to be repaired."

I can't honestly remember too much about it so I checked out some other reviews on Goodreads which reminded me that it covers the use of postcards sent home by soldiers who had been injured to their loved ones that started with the line "My dear I wanted to tell you" and gave them the options of being very truthful about their circumstances or sending a more edited version to spare feelings.  Postcards being able to be sent quicker than letters which required censorship.  

There is also a lot about the advances in plastic surgery that were necessary due to the awful injuries soldiers sustained.  It's a bit graphic on that front.  

Unfortunately, despite being able to read about the horrors of WW1 and WW2 we still don't seem to have learned any lessons from them.

I swing between watching the news so that I'm informed about what is happening in the world, despite how awful it is, or switching it off and immersing myself in a book.  The books seem to be winning at the moment.

X is for Xarissa (A-Z Challenge 2026) 28/4/26

The A-Z home page can be found here.

My theme this year is authors that I've read. More about the books I've read than the authors themselves.

I'm an avid reader. I'm a member of 2 in person reading groups through my local library. I'm gradually working my way through an old BBC reading list of 100 books (I'm about half way through) and I'm taking part in the online 52 Book Club Challenge for the third time this year where the challenge is to read 52 books over the year based on 52 different prompts. You can also find me on Goodreads here.

The X authors I've read are:

• Xarissa Diana

Hands up who thought I'd have to be creative with this letter?

Well not creative exactly but I did seek out an author beginning with the letter X when I was planning for this challenge as I didn't have one.

There are actually lots of authors starting with X, many of which are Chinese.  I went for Diana Xarissa who is American.  I chose Aunt Bessie Assumes, a very cozy crime story featuring, yes you've guessed it, Aunt Bessie and set on the Isle of Man.  Aunt Bessie stumbles across 2 dead bodies in short succession which is surprising given that the Isle of Man, which lies between Ireland and the UK, is only 221 square miles in area and has a population of just over 84,000.

In fact, Aunt Bessie features in her own A-Z series and she's also tackled cold cases.  If you thought that small island, famous for its TT race was a safe place to live, maybe think again lol.  

Turns out Diana has self published over 100 books! Unfortunately one was enough for me.

Do you have an author that you've read but would never read again?

A bit of Waffle - 27/4/26

Phew - I've scheduled all the remaining A-Z posts.  That's a relief.  It's been hard work keeping up with everything and, as usual, I haven't been great at visiting other bloggers that are taking part so I'm trying to do more of that now.

Even responding to comments has been tricky.  I hope none of my regular followers feel neglected.

I didn't do a photos post yesterday as I hadn't done a full week of photos but these are the photos that I did take last week:

A couple of things I bought for my Hubby's birthday - unfortunately the mug has already been broken.  Not sure what happened but he was pouring coffee into it and it just cracked around the bottom!  Very annoying.

This was a photo I took to remind me of when I parked in a restricted road on Tuesday.

The next book for the evening Book Group.

Progress on the jumper I'm knitting.

And at the weekend we had grandchildren Ella and Nathan sleeping over on Saturday night.

I didn't take a photo yesterday so not the best start to this week but I have taken some today.  Hopefully I'll continue over this week.

Hubby and I had an outing together today - we went to the nearby Larkswood and then for lunch in one of the many Highams Park cafes.

Tonight I'm on duty at the Foodbank for deliveries but it's looking like I will also have to do a collection as one of our drivers has now left to start training as a fire fighter.  Hopefully we'll recruit some more driver volunteers but until then I might be busier than usual!

Have a good week all.