Words for Wednesday ~ Updated & IWSG ~ May 6

The original Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and eventually taken over as a moveable feast with many participants supplying the Words.
    When Delores closed her blog forever due to other problems, Elephant's Child (Sue) took over the role of coordinator.
    Now, after Sue's demise, River has taken the mantle of coordinator upon her shoulders.

No matter what, how, where or who the aim of the words is to encourage us to write. A story, a poem, whatever comes to our mind.

This month the words are to be found at Mimi's blog: Messymimi's Meanderings.

If you are posting an entry on your own blog, please leave a comment on River's blog, then we can come along and read it and add a few encouraging words.

 It is also a challenge, where the old saying "The more the merrier" holds true.

So Please, remember to follow the links, go back and read other peoples' stories. And please leave a comment after reading. Challenges like this one thrives on interaction, feedback and encouragement. And we ALL need encouragement.

And for today we were given:
Inane
Trees
Wind  
Effervescent  
Landmark  
Method
    And/Or:
Zero  
Simple  
Clockwork  
Brain  
Study  
Size

These words will probably lend themselves to a story. But not today. I only just returned home, and have to helpcooking, and after we'll have visitors. Hopefully tomorrow ...

I got to sit down for a little while and writing happened. This continues from here, using the first six words, and as usual in the order they were given.

Marja, the youngest of the birch sisters, looked at the entangling vines with an inane look in her green eyes.
"Where did they come from?" she asked her sister in a loud stage whisper. Paula woke from her own reverie and noticed the vines tying her to the chair. "Danged if I know!" she replied a tad too loudly.
Thora turned to the two sisters, and they turned as white as the tree they were called after.
"You did this!" Paula said, belligerently.
"Yes and no," Thore replied calmly, but with an undertone as cold as the howling wind  in a snowstorm. "You were both inattentive - again. The kind of inattentive that comes from disrespect and laziness. You never heard my questions, you never even tried to answer. You were both so deeply ensconced in your reveries that you did not even notice the creeping vines." They were not used to seeing Thora this angry, and everybody in the room sat quiet as mice.
"But," Marja said, "I just wanted to ..." her voice died off in mutterings.
"You just wanted to what?" Thora asked. Marja stammered and spluttered and grinded to a halt.
"What about you, Paula?" Thora asked.
"I was thinking," Paula replied, still with some spite in her voice.
"You were thinking," Thora said, "and in such deep thoughts that the vines bound you without you even noticing. Now, spill it!"
Thora turned around: "Green team! You are dismissed! You'll all go and wash out your hands and mouths in the effervescent water in the big, blue tub in the stable. And Hilde after you've done this, you'll bring me two litres of said water, two mugs and a pair of scissors."
"Yes, Thora, will do!" Hilde said, every line in her being showing the same confusion they all felt.
They did as ordered. In the stable, where all the cages and other paraphernalia for zoological and botanical lessons were kept, they found a big, blue tub filled to the brim with effervescent water, bubbling, foaming and dancing, and a nearby table held green mugs.  They rinsed their mouths in the water, spitting the sweet tasting concoction into the long white sink along the back wall, where they normally washed vases and containers. Then they poured water for one another washing their hands with the same water. Their hands and mouths felt clean and faintly tingling. None of them dared disobey Thora's orders, but there were many questions asked, and no answers given.
Hilde filled a two litre jar from the tub, grabbed two mugs and a pair of scissors from the drawers and left.
The rest of the green team, stayed in the stable, looking fascinated at the bubbling waters in the tub.
"I do not understand," Terje said slowly. "Where did those vines come from. And what was the answer to Thora's questions?"
"Dear Terje,"  Knud said, I think I speak for all of us when I say that we do not understand anything either. We're travelling unknown land with no landmarks here."
"I agree," Nicklas said quietly. "Something strange is happening. That's not like Thora to behave like that over a bit of bickering and inattention. There must be some method to this madness."
"Must be," Veronika agreed, "Even if I see no connection between a botched potions recipe, animated pincers, vines and a big, blue tub of bubbling waters, there must be."
Hilde returned and everybody stopped talking and looked expectantly at her.

 . . . . . To be continued

- - A - - B - - C - -

May 6 question - What was the most inspiring feedback you received from readers, including agents, editors, and beta readers

My answer - This qustion makes me sad, because the best inspiring feedback was not one comment from anybody. It was something I still miss, namely the unvavering enthusiasm of Elephant's Child, also known as Sue @ myjustsostory. Now sadly deceased. 

I wrote this as part of a preamble to one of my short stories: 
Sometimes I felt like I wrote my stories for her alone, when time were tough and hot in Australia. ... I still miss her gentle presence in the blogosphere ...

Not that others are not enthusiastic or supportive, because you sure are! and much of the reason I'm still a somewhat sane person and blogger THANKS!
EC was just ... I don't know how to express this the way I want to ... but you felt like a very special person when she commented.

Here's two of her wonderful comments.

Tirsdagstaknemmelighed

Thankful Tuesday

Birketræerne taber deres rakler allerede. Det betyder snart ikke mere birkepollen. Atjuu-uuraaa!

The birch trees are already beginning to drop their catkins, spelling the end of pollen season Achoo-ooraay!

Also, back to my normal Wordle words, I get my usual 4 guesses solves:
Wordle 1.781 4/6
⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
🟨⬜⬜🟨⬜
⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

The Danish Wordle. I do worse in Danish!
Wørdle #1.578 5/6
⬛🟦⬛⬛⬛
⬛🟦⬛⬛⬛
🟦⬛⬛⬛🟦
🟩🟦⬛🟩⬛
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Og dagens bonus-skønhed ~ And today's bonus-beauty

Kvæde ~ Quince

Poetry Monday :: Back Pack

Poetry Monday is a blogging game invented long ago. Mimi of Messymimi's Meanderings and I are keeping it alive until Diane @ On the Border returns home from her break of health and relaxation, travelling the world with her husband as far as we can tell.

We just hope she's going to take back over once she returns home.

The prompts now come from 365 Days of Drawing Prompts and other Arts group. This is a Facebook group with a prompt for each day of the year, but no worries, the prompts will still be here and at Mimi's blog.

Today's prompt is: Back pack.
An ode to my old friend it is then.

We've travelled the world, me and my back pack
We walked down roads and off beaten track.
I carried you, you carried my stuff - and a snack
A bottle of water and my sleeping bag.

You met with an accident bitter and black
The bus with us in it was hit with a smack
You bore the brunt of it and now you're a wrack
I have to find a new one that has my back.

Another true story form one of my many travels. The bus we sat in - and where the luggage was stored in compartments under us - ran into a wall or another solid object at a very low speed. Most important nobody was hurt, and almost nothing was broken apart from my poor backpack, the frame of which was twisted and bent beyond repair. It made it home with me, but not without chafing and trouble for me.

- - - - - - - - - - Coming Themes  - - - - - -

taken from the 365 Days of Drawing Prompts and other Arts group.

May 11 Futuristic Landscape
May 18 Balcony
May 25 Scooter
June 1 Blue
June 8 2 minute Sketch
June 15 Cobweb with Dewdrops
Jun 22  Lily
Jun 29  Northern light

A-Z Challenge ~ Reflections Part 2

⚠ Warning! This post contains the answer to today's Wordle ⚠
⚠ Proceed at your own risk ⚠

Today's Wordle says it for me - only the solution does not count:

This was my last year participating - at least the last year signing up. I like very much to force myself to blog almost every day for a whole month, I've found a hopefully entertaining and fun, but still easy to do challenge with the day's Wordle and some telling. I really find participating in the A-Z Challenge to be a fun thing to do.

Why then do I stop? I stop, because I find the downsides to be too many. Bear with me for some ranting.

The trouble with the master list:
When the sign-up had ended, I made my own copy of the spreadsheet. After a quick visit to most of the blogs, I had found double or triple signups, non-participants, broken links, and a blog or two where you had to sign up ... leaving me with 125 of the original 144 on the list. A bit worse than last year actually.

I still find that a wee bit of policing from The Crew would wastly improve the fun to be had from this challenge. But it's not that bad, I could totally live with it ... if the rest was fun.

The not-for-fun-any-more in Blogland.

This year the A-Z Challenge felt more like an extra job. Not the writing of the posts, even if this is a labour, it is a labour of love, as I do enjoy blogging.

As said more times already I find the challenge in itself fun, but the social media hype and the assertive and truculent challengers not so much. There's plain too many in it just to promote something, and too few in it just to tell a story, to goof around, or for plain fun.

Not taking into account the blogs I follow regularly, during the challenge in former years I've always found some blogs I looked forward to visiting every day.
    This year ... I found a couple that was really fun, and a few more that had me reading every day, but of the rest I felt that too many were promoting something, be it themselves, their books, thier products generally taken, or some spiritual well-being stuff.
    And if not, the subjects did not catch me, or the graphics were so messy that I could no read it. These two last are of course on me. 

I might just have grown old, disillusioned, bored, and bitter,

It might also be a clash of cultures. I do not know.

All I know is that I'm not going to sign up again next year

Wordle 1.780 6/6
⬜⬜⬜🟩🟩
⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜
🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

A-Z Challenge Reflections ~ Part 1

'This is what the Team behind the A-C Challenge writes on the A-Z blog for the Reflection post.
My replies and comments will be in blue, like this text.

Our team theme this year was: A is for Aspirations: Blogging hopes, dreams, and goals

Do you feel like our team's posts from this month met your expectations for that theme?

First off a HUGE thanks to the Crew behind the A-Z Challenge. THANK YOU!

As far as I read the Crew's posts on the A-Z homepage, yes they fit the theme. But I feel a bit that it's work wasted, as I was too busy really reading them, and I felt that the most frequent use of these posts was self promotion from other participants.


While you reflect on your blog's April Challenge posts, please consider this:

How do you feel about the Theme Reveal? (Especially if this is not your first year doing the Challenge.)

I feel that having Theme-reveal AND Sign up is overkill. There's no extra value in the Theme reveal, as we're asked to add our themes in the sign-up spreadsheet as well.
As Lissa says in the comment, the Theme reveal list alone would do nicely, maybe prolonging the closing date until March 31 would be wise. I don't think the possibility of signing up should overlap with the Challenge proper.

In what ways does the reflection post help you?

I don't know. I always write them, hoping that it'll help improve next year's A-Z Challenge, but so far no luck.

What experiences have you had in the past, or hope to have this year, with the Road Trip?

I always promise to do it, but then life happens. Maybe this year.

    Does the HTML on the badges/ graphics page help you?
No.

    Did you meet your blogging goals in April?
Yes, I wrote all 26 posts.

    What were your top five favourite blogs from the challenge to visit in April this year?
I want to mention Whatever I Think of and the bookish scavenger hunt there. It was fun. Not that I did not find a few other good ones, but this year I found only a few I really looked forward to reading. Also I ran out of time. I would have loved to solve Jamie's crosswords @ Uniquely Maladjusted but Fun, I'd have loved to follow LindaMay Curry's journey with Cancer @ The lost Summer, (Curry Apple Orchard), or seen all of America's beauty with AM @ Ramblin' with AM, and so much more. But my eyes, never good, were especially uncooperative during May.

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, and thank you.

Is there a comment you received on your blog in April that is your favorite?

Yes there is - but I'll keep it to myself.

Who were your top comment-leavers this challenge, and did they do the challenge?

I don't know, as I don't keep track of comments. I suspect Mimi @ Messymimi's Meanderings or River @ Drifting through Life, but then we comment on one another's blogs throughout the year. Actually I just looked to my stats - and found a strange fact - I've had fewer visitors and comments during A-Z than I normally have. I wonder why. 

Is your blog open to comments from everyone, or only comments from those who "sign in" to the platform?

Yes, my blog is open to everyone, always. older posts are moderated, to avoid spamming, but never limited by log in or captchas or any such. 

    Do you feel this helps or hurts your blogging comment goals?

Erm, sorry. I do not understand. Other blogs having log in or Captchas surely prevents me from commenting, if this is what you mean.

Are there any other blog hops you regularly take part in?

Poetry Monday, Words for Wednesday, Sunday Selections and Colour of the Month (Colour26). All these have suffered because of the A-Z Challenge.

Did you discover anything interesting because of the Challenge?

Of course. Reading so many different blogs would make me discover something :)

Will you plan to do the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge in 2027, and why (or why not)?

No, I won't. Because ... please read my A-Z Challenge Reflections ~ Part 2 for an explanation. 

Will you recommend this blog hop to others?

Neither recommend nor the opposite.

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.)
Do you plan to visit the A to Z site every month?
    The site gets many hits, even in the off-season!
What else could the team offer you to persuade you to encourage others to join the challenge?

I do not plan to visit, I do visit now and then, mostly to see if you're doing something like the Zip through Autumn Challenge from 2022.

To make me do the challenge again in 2027, and encourage others to do the challenge as well ... Good question. It's not the challenge as such that makes me say no to doing this again, but something has shifted, from fun and sharing to a hard seriousness and monetizing of a lot of things ...

I do not mean to disdain anybody's hard work, and I really admire the Crew for their dedication and all what they do, but still, I don't know ... It was way more fun some years ago, and I have no idea how to remedy this ...