Yay! I did it! All 26 letters of the alphabet in order, posted on time, and on the correct days… success!
And I managed to check out most A-Z posts of most of the bloggers I already follow – what a diverse set of themes they had this year, I really enjoyed keeping up with all their interesting takes on the challenge 🙂
But not so good was my new blog checking out from the master list… I started out reasonably well but as ever things soon tailed off and by the end of the month I’d given up completely… 😦
Time is always a big issue for me, I choose to give only a set amount of time to blogging so have to prioritise and prefer to keep up with all daily posts from bloggers I already know, not just those doing the A-Z challenge.
I had fun though, and will no doubt try again next year! 🙂
Hmmm… This post should probably have come under either A for Astrology or H for Horoscope, but it’s a bit late for either of those two letters now, so Z for zodiac is it!
I was born under the sign of Sagittarius, the Archer, and although I’ve never taken it all too seriously I have enjoyed exploring ‘my’ character traits according to celestial planetary positioning at my time of birth. I probably dabble and deliberate, and doubt and denounce in equal measure. I even had a comprehensive astrological chart drawn up once, which I do go back to reading over now and again and I do seem to find something different in it every time, depending on my current stage of life.
I’ve got Tarot cards, too, but it’s been a long time since I’ve taken them out from their protective silk covering and asked a question… Maybe it’s time I tried again…? 🙂
Life events have conspired to pull me away from blogging over the last couple of months, and the idea of taking part in this year’s April Blogging from A-Z Challenge seems like a good way to try to get back into the habit of reading and posting regularly. Originally I thought of just using any old random words to go with the particular letter of the day, but realistically without a clear theme to work towards I’m not sure I’d be able to keep my focus for a full month… So instead I’ve opted for a relatively simple, if slightly self-indulgent work-around: This year I’ll be posting 26 things about me, nothing too taxing to write about yet still fulfilling the brief!
In the ideal world of wishful thinking I’m someone who’s good at yoga, someone who practices regularly and is strong and supple and good at stretching. I love the thought of having the clarity of mind that goes with yoga, the balanced chakras giving a healthy flow of energy surging from the roots of my hair to the tips of my toes.
Sadly in the real world I’m stiff and stressed and however many times over my lifetime I’ve really tried to encourage myself to build up a regular habit and properly get into my yoga groove I really struggle to get anywhere meaningful so become despondent and sooner or later always end up giving up… sigh!  Â
Life events have conspired to pull me away from blogging over the last couple of months, and the idea of taking part in this year’s April Blogging from A-Z Challenge seems like a good way to try to get back into the habit of reading and posting regularly. Originally I thought of just using any old random words to go with the particular letter of the day, but realistically without a clear theme to work towards I’m not sure I’d be able to keep my focus for a full month… So instead I’ve opted for a relatively simple, if slightly self-indulgent work-around: This year I’ll be posting 26 things about me, nothing too taxing to write about yet still fulfilling the brief!
Long before there was the possibility of ultrasound scans of babies in the womb, pregnant women were sometimes given X-rays of their mid-section to see how the baby was lying – my mum had multiple X-rays during her difficult pregnancy with me in the early 1960s. I ended up being a transverse breech so I was delivered by emergency Caesarian Section in the middle of the night after mum went into labour nearly a month early. Although a breech birth is where the baby is born feet first, or sometimes bottom first, a transverse breech is where the baby is lying sideways across the uterus. (See, I told you I was indecisive – even in utero I was prevaricating as to which way to be born, up or down, and ended up being taken out a different exit!)
Fifty-eight years on and I’ve had another flurry of X-Rays more recently too as my arthritic hip has been giving me more and more mobility problems and my Orthopaedic Consultant wanted to see my slightly crumbly hip joint from several different angles – I even had an MRI scan a couple of weeks ago, which was a completely new experience for me. So hopefully I’ll find out at my next clinic appointment (in about a month’s time) what the long-term plans will be for fixing me up so I can move more easily again… fingers crossed… 🙂
Life events have conspired to pull me away from blogging over the last couple of months, and the idea of taking part in this year’s April Blogging from A-Z Challenge seems like a good way to try to get back into the habit of reading and posting regularly. Originally I thought of just using any old random words to go with the particular letter of the day, but realistically without a clear theme to work towards I’m not sure I’d be able to keep my focus for a full month… So instead I’ve opted for a relatively simple, if slightly self-indulgent work-around: This year I’ll be posting 26 things about me, nothing too taxing to write about yet still fulfilling the brief!
Historically I’ve always loved walking everywhere but currently have an arthritic right hip so out of necessity have been using a proper heavy-duty walking stick for the last few months.
To begin with I was so self-conscious about using a stick at all, concerned that people would be looking at me and wondering if I was some kind of attention-seeking fraud pretending to be in need of a walking aid when at my age I really shouldn’t. But I soon realised that walking with a stick is a much better option than limping along in pain outdoors or hobbling around slowly indoors, and as I’ve got used to it I find I don’t really care what other people think any more. At least I can still walk, albeit on a much reduced scale, and keeping as mobile as possible is what matters most for now.
And anyway, with my walking stick as a visual cue to others I find it’s definitely so much easier to cross the road safely when drivers can see I’m not deliberately dawdling, it’s more that mechanically I’m just a lot slower than I used to be… Â
Life events have conspired to pull me away from blogging over the last couple of months, and the idea of taking part in this year’s April Blogging from A-Z Challenge seems like a good way to try to get back into the habit of reading and posting regularly. Originally I thought of just using any old random words to go with the particular letter of the day, but realistically without a clear theme to work towards I’m not sure I’d be able to keep my focus for a full month… So instead I’ve opted for a relatively simple, if slightly self-indulgent work-around: This year I’ll be posting 26 things about me, nothing too taxing to write about yet still fulfilling the brief!
I love vintage stuff, we have a couple of beautifully upcycled quality mid-20th Century pieces in the house as well as a few favourite finds from charity shops and the like dotted here and there. We do have new stuff too, it’s not like we live in a completely different era or anything, but there’s something special about the feel of a proper wear-and-tear, real-life-lived patina (rather than the deliberate ‘distressing’ of modern stuff) that really appeals to me. I quite like stuff to show that it has lived a life before and has survived and adapted and is still going strong into the future… In my book shabby chic is cool, it brings hope for all of us that it’s OK to be battered and bruised and imperfect because there’s still a place and a sense of worth to be had in this world however worn or weary you may be… 🙂
Life events have conspired to pull me away from blogging over the last couple of months, and the idea of taking part in this year’s April Blogging from A-Z Challenge seems like a good way to try to get back into the habit of reading and posting regularly. Originally I thought of just using any old random words to go with the particular letter of the day, but realistically without a clear theme to work towards I’m not sure I’d be able to keep my focus for a full month… So instead I’ve opted for a relatively simple, if slightly self-indulgent work-around: This year I’ll be posting 26 things about me, nothing too taxing to write about yet still fulfilling the brief!
I must admit I’m crap at making decisions. Being an inveterate people-pleaser I generally don’t like causing upset to anyone wherever possible so as a result I seriously struggle with weighing up what I want against what others want, and it often leaves me hovering and hesitating and effectively indecisive far too often. I hum and haw and haver and agonise over every minute little deliberation… Yup, I’m just crap at making decisions…
Life events have conspired to pull me away from blogging over the last couple of months, and the idea of taking part in this year’s April Blogging from A-Z Challenge seems like a good way to try to get back into the habit of reading and posting regularly. Originally I thought of just using any old random words to go with the particular letter of the day, but realistically without a clear theme to work towards I’m not sure I’d be able to keep my focus for a full month… So instead I’ve opted for a relatively simple, if slightly self-indulgent work-around: This year I’ll be posting 26 things about me, nothing too taxing to write about yet still fulfilling the brief!
Ooh, but I do love a ticking clock – thankfully so does my husband! With individual smartphones taking over all things time-related these days it seems so many people don’t even have communal clock-face clocks in their homes any more, or if they do they prefer something battery operated, maybe even silent. We certainly have a couple of retro-style battery wall clocks ourselves – one in the kitchen and one in the dining room, and both of those have a pleasant quiet ticking sound. But I grew up with those old-fashioned proper clockwork clocks you had to wind up regularly, and personally I still love to hear a mechanically ticking clock.
We have an old Art Deco style mantel clock in the living room that you wind with a big brass key – we bought it second-hand in a charity shop – and it not only ticks loudly but it chimes, too, although the chime mechanism can be switched off (with a little lever) if you really don’t like it. My paternal grandparents had a huge mahogany grandfather clock in their hall with a really deep, resonant tick that seemed to be the heartbeat of the house. Maybe that’s why I find ticking clocks so reassuring, to me they’re the living heartbeat of the house, so I find the perpetual rhythm comforting… residual memories of being in the womb, perhaps?
Life events have conspired to pull me away from blogging over the last couple of months, and the idea of taking part in this year’s April Blogging from A-Z Challenge seems like a good way to try to get back into the habit of reading and posting regularly. Originally I thought of just using any old random words to go with the particular letter of the day, but realistically without a clear theme to work towards I’m not sure I’d be able to keep my focus for a full month… So instead I’ve opted for a relatively simple, if slightly self-indulgent work-around: This year I’ll be posting 26 things about me, nothing too taxing to write about yet still fulfilling the brief!
I have a sweet tooth, but not necessarily for anything and everything sugar-rush-inducing. Sweet is good, but overly-sickly-sweet is not, and I tend to find the current tendency towards an over-the-top overkill of elaborate confectionary concoctions to be just too much for me.
For example I prefer my chocolate and my ice-cream unadulterated with affectation – no additional sauces or sprinkles or extra distractions to spoil my enjoyment, I like both to be creamy and smooth and blissfully comforting just as they are. I’m not a great cake-lover in general but if I do indulge I prefer to keep any adornment sparingly simple – moist sponge with minimal decoration.
And freshly-baked home-made cakes always taste so much better to me. I really love plain flapjacks, too, there’s just something about that particular buttery, syrupy, oat-flake-y combination that just hits the perfect sweet-spot for me… Mmmm… 🙂
Life events have conspired to pull me away from blogging over the last couple of months, and the idea of taking part in this year’s April Blogging from A-Z Challenge seems like a good way to try to get back into the habit of reading and posting regularly. Originally I thought of just using any old random words to go with the particular letter of the day, but realistically without a clear theme to work towards I’m not sure I’d be able to keep my focus for a full month… So instead I’ve opted for a relatively simple, if slightly self-indulgent work-around: This year I’ll be posting 26 things about me, nothing too taxing to write about yet still fulfilling the brief!
I like to try to do my bit for the planet wherever possible, not necessarily by making grand gestures but more by doing little things, day by day, to help save us from ourselves as we so mindlessly and selfishly seem intent on destroying what nature gave us. I try not only to reduce the amount of what we use at source but also to reduce the level of waste generated from that consumption.
Throughout the pandemic I’ve used washable masks most of the time – and here in Scotland we’d all been legally required to wear masks in certain social circumstances continuously from 10th July 2020 through to 18th April 2022 (only four days ago!), so over a whole population that’s got to have been a lot of discarded single-use masks daily.
I tend to donate any unwanted items to charity shops, and also buy items there when I can – second-hand, pre-loved, whatever you want to call it, re-using stuff is an easy habit to get into. And we always recycle our waste – plastics, cans, paper, glass – to the extent that very little is sent from our home straight to landfill. Individually we can’t do everything to help save the planet, but I believe we can all do something…
Life events have conspired to pull me away from blogging over the last couple of months, and the idea of taking part in this year’s April Blogging from A-Z Challenge seems like a good way to try to get back into the habit of reading and posting regularly. Originally I thought of just using any old random words to go with the particular letter of the day, but realistically without a clear theme to work towards I’m not sure I’d be able to keep my focus for a full month… So instead I’ve opted for a relatively simple, if slightly self-indulgent work-around: This year I’ll be posting 26 things about me, nothing too taxing to write about yet still fulfilling the brief!
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