A-Z Reflections Post 2026

Well it's time to do a reflections post on the A-Z challenge and one of the co-hosts, J Lenni Dorner gave some pointers on what to consider including so here goes:

• How do you feel about the Theme Reveal? (Especially if this is not your first year doing the Challenge.) I think it's useful to let people know you're taking part and what you're planning to write about but I'm not sure having a list on the A-Z site is actually that helpful. (Although it probably is for the co-hosts to gauge what the level of participation is going to be.)
• In what ways does the reflection post help you?  It's a good way of looking at what worked, what didn't etc.
• What experiences have you had in the past, or hope to have this year, with the Road Trip?  I've tried to do the Road Trip a couple of times and have failed miserably.
• Does the HTML on the badges/ graphics page help you? Yes, thanks.
• Did you meet your blogging goals in April? I did.  
• What were your top five favourite blogs from the challenge to visit in April this year? Difficult to say - I'm still working my way through the list but several people who I already followed did the challenge so I enjoyed following them through the challenge.
• Did a co-host (J Lenni Dorner, Arlee Bird, Zalka Csenge Virág, John Holton, Jayden R Vincente, or Ronel Janse van Vuuren) comment on your blog during the challenge? Yes, several of them, thank you.
• Is there a comment you received on your blog in April that is your favourite? "Wendy, how do you remember all of the authors you've read! I am amazed at your A-Z this year and you are only on "D"!! Wow!"  This was left by one of my regular readers who always leaves me great comments.
• Who were your top comment-leavers this challenge, and did they do the challenge?  Definitely Terri, who left the comment above, plus Kim and Joanne who did not do the challenge. Of people that did do the challenge Joyce at http://www.fromthissideofthepond.com/ and Faith at GOLD in the CLOUDS were regular commenters.
• Is your blog open to comments from everyone, or only comments from those who "sign in" to the platform? Open to everyone.
• Do you feel this helps or hurts your blogging comment goals? Helps
• Are there any other blog hops you regularly take part in? Wednesday Hodgepodge at From this side of the pond, a weekly gratitude post at Living to tell the Story and I also try to join in with a stream of consciousness post on Saturdays here.
• Did you discover anything interesting because of the Challenge? Lots of things.
• Will you plan to do the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge in 2027, and why (or why not)?  I probably will if I can think of a suitable theme.  I definitely work better with a theme.
• Will you recommend this blog hop to others?  Difficult to say.  My regular followers are already aware of the challenge from visiting my blog and new visitors have tended to be people doing the challenge anyway.
• If RoadTrippers only visit one of your Challenge posts, which would you suggest and why? (This question is also the prompt if you create a RoadTrip post.) Probably the A post.
• Do you plan to visit the A to Z site every month? I look at all the new posts as and when they're posted.
• Did you refer someone to hope to win a guest post spot? No
• What else could the team offer you to persuade you to encourage others to join the challenge?  I don't feel I need encouraging, I just don't have that big a circle of people.

Phew that was a marathon.  I really enjoyed doing the A-Z again this year particularly looking back at the books I've read and their authors.  What frustrated me, as it seems to every year, was that despite deciding on my theme way back last summer, I still wasn't totally prepared by the start of the challenge.  Consequently that meant I didn't have as much time as I'd like to work my way through the list of people taking part.  I think I'm about half way through the list now and I've tried to comment as much as possible.  I will continue to work through it but it will probably be at a more leisurely pace.  The way the commenting system works on Blogger still frustrates me too as it's hard to see the continuity in the same way as you can on Wordpress sites but I have no plans to switch platforms.

Finally 2 big thank yous - firstly to the team that make the A-Z challenge possible.  I can't imagine how time consuming it must be for you all especially when you all have your own sites to maintain and many of you are published authors.  Secondly to all those people who did visit my A-Z posts and particularly those that left regular, encouraging comments.  A lot of my blogging is about keeping a log of my daily life so I'd do it even without the comments but it is great to feel that your posts are not just disappearing into the web.

Wednesday Hodgepodge - 6/5/26

Joyce asks the questions, we prepare our answers and then the link up is here.  Thanks Joyce.

1. What's something you may do this month?

I might get a haircut.  Been saying that since February!  That's the problem with a long hairstyle - it doesn't need as much maintenance so it's easy to just leave it growing.

2. Hola! Hodgepodge Day lands just after Cinco de Mayo... how do you feel about Mexican food? What's your favourite dish? Do you make it at home or is it a strictly dine out option? 

I'm not a big fan and it would definitely be dine out as I wouldn't make it at home.

3. When the children of today grow up what do you think they'll say about this time period? What do you most hope they remember? 

Oh goodness, that's a tricky one.  How long have we got?  It's hard to find the positive's with all the unrest around the world.

4. What advice would you give a new mother? 

Trust your instincts but ask for help when you need it.

5. What's a phrase your mother often said to you? If you're a mom do you say it to your own children? 

I can't remember a specific phrase but we were always reminded about good manners if we forgot, which is something I also did when my kids were younger.  They're all grown adults now with kids of their own and I love that they're reinforcing good manners with them.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Going back to question 3, our 3 youngest grandchildren were all lock down babies, born in 2020.  What I hope they'll say when we talk about lockdown is "what are you talking about" because they will have no memory of it as long as it doesn't happen again.

Hmm hope that makes sense!

In the news this week - 5/5/26

Well it's been a few weeks since I did one of these posts as I was busy doing the A-Z challenge but now that's done I'm trying to get back into my regular blogging rhythm.

As far as the International picture looks, nothing much has changed.  The USA and Iran are still at war despite a ceasefire, Israel is still attacking Lebanon and nothing seems to have changed in Ukraine.

Moving on to local news then and everything seems to be about the local elections taking place on Wednesday - this is for our local councillors.  It's not looking good for Labour.  We did our votes over a week ago by post.  So much easier than having to get to the polling station on the day.  Especially as you now have to remember to take photo ID with you.  It will be interesting to see just how badly Labour does but hopefully Reform won't do as well as they keep saying they will.

In sport, our football season is drawing to a close with Arsenal set to win the Premiership and possibly get through to the Champions League final. They're currently ahead in the semi-final.  At home we're waiting to see if West Ham or Tottenham Hotspur will be relegated.  Hubby is a West Ham supporter, I'm sort of a Spurs fan through family connections but I don't really care.  I was just looking forward to the summer break from football when, oh yeah, there's just the matter of the World Cup taking place this year!

The Entertainment news that caught my eye was this one about the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest Semi-finals next week.  It seems to me this contest has got more farcical over the years and as this year it turns 70 it will probably be worse.  I mean since when has Israel been in Europe?  But then again if Australia can take part I suppose anyone can?  Apparently it's all to do with Broadcasting areas.  Our entry this year is Eins Zwei Drei by LOOK MUM NO COMPUTER.  I don't think we have a hope.  Apparently it has  "many iconic UK references like roly poly with custard"   so why give it a German title?  I probably won't be watching.

And for miscellaneous I bring you this article from the BBC website on the wonderful creations stars wore for the Met Gala this week.  Many of which would probably have prevented the wearer from sitting comfortably!  (Or even walking very far!)

P.S. Arsenal made it through to the Champions League final - my Grandson Nathan and my DIL will be very happy.

A bit of waffle - 4/5/26

Well the A-Z challenge is over for another year (apart from the reflections posts and the road trip) so time to get back into the normal rhythm of blogging.

That didn't go too well yesterday when I didn't do a photo post.  Hadn't taken many photos, again! But here are a few that didn't make it to my posts during last week:

Not the best photo but you can just about see the baby coots. There are several coots nesting around the lake and the parents of these were being very territorial and chasing ducks away.

Egyptian geese.

The resident heron.

Some of the trees around the lake are very old and I love picking out the unusual shaped ones.

I'm not sure how long these tree remains have been in the lake - I hadn't walked down there for a little while

But this shows where the tree has gone over into the lake.

Nesting coot.

And I couldn't resist posting this screen shot.  Part of my morning routine is to do the New York Times set of puzzles - Wordle, Connections etc and of course the Spelling Bee.  I usually try to get to at least the Amazing level and I do occasionally reach the Genius level but I had never managed a Queen Bee where you find all the possible words, until last Monday.  And it was quite a tricky selection of letters so I was feeling very pleased with myself.

Today has been a Bank Holiday in the UK although of course it doesn't make a lot of difference when you're retired.  But it did affect the timing of charity collections at the supermarkets for the Foodbank as the supermarkets were mostly closing early.  I ended up having to do a collection from our local Tesco at 5 pm as we're a bit short of drivers at the moment, one has moved on to train to be a Fire fighter and a couple were away on holiday.  But thankfully we were all finished with sorting out the donations just before 7 pm so a nice early night for me and time to blog.

I'm about half way through Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café by Fannie Flagg but I'm not sure I'm going to be able to work it into the 52 Book Club Challenge.  I've also downloaded Penitence by Kristin Koval which was a magazine recommendation and I've reserved Welcome to the Neighbourhood by Jane Fallon which will tick the "Published in 2026" box.

I need to get back into the habit of reading before I go to sleep, I've been a bit lax lately.  There really aren't enough hours in the day, especially when you get caught up in waffle!