Words for Wednesday ~ April 1st Only the Words & IWSG

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, Wednesday 1st, we were given:
Great
Harmony
Attraction
Reach
Subject
Delicate

I'll see if I can catch up with my muse - it might not be until Saturday.

- - A - - B - - C - -

April 1 4 question - If you have a playlist (or could put one together) that either gets you in the groove to write or fits with one of your books, what is it? What type of music or what songs?

My answer - I do not have any playlists at all, as when I write, I want silence, or rather the "music" of family life going on, around me. Same goes for other things - when they do not have their own sounds that I need to hear (Computer games for instance):

If I had to make a playlist it would be for my book (Susan and the Magic in the Nordic Countries aka. Unicorn Farm).

And if I was to make such a playlist, it would sound strange in the ears of most of my readers, as the lyrics would be mostly in Danish.

But excluding all the Danish songs, here's a sample of what would be on it in no particular order:
High Noon,
Hall of the Mountain King,
Jamaica Farewell,
Leaving of Liverpool;
Black Velvet Band,
The Skaters' Waltz
Je ne regrette rien,
Mr. Tambourine Man
Banana Boat Song.
Jingle Bells
Le metéque.
Ma solitude,
Les enfants d'hier.
The songs from: Der Zarewitsch, Die Fledermaus, Die Zauberflöte, Oklahoma, Easter Parade, Singing in the Rain, The Nut Cracker and more like them.

A-Z Challenge ~ A for Abbey

This year again I choose an easy way out. Each day I'm going to solve the Wordle of the day, using as starter a word beginning with the letter of the day. I post every day at noon my time (GMT +2. Dang you DST!)

As the alternative badges, as supplied by Lissa suggest travel I'll prefer travel-related words as starter words, and if at all possible, I'll avoid words containing the same letter more than once.

I'll maybe add a few words about my chosen starter word if fancy takes me and I have time and energy for it, else I'll just post the solution - or not in the case that I did not solve it.

And as always there's Easter with busy days and family things, so my posting schedule might look a bit erratic, more so in the beginning.

Today my starting word is Abbey. I succeeded in solving the Wordle with this starter word, but it was not a good one as can be seen here:

Wordle 1.747 6/6
⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩
⬜🟩⬜⬜🟩
🟩🟩⬜⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Long ago, as I travelled in Africa we lodged in an abbey in a small town in Southern Sudan, It was home to a priest, Father Bill, and some sisters, I think belonging to the Sisters of the Precious Blood.

The days we stayed there, included the feast of Epiphany. On that day mass was celebrated in the big church.

It was as I said big, Gothic, white, but with no windows at all - it had doors.

A couple of new sisters had their wows that day, an there was a grand celebration afterwards - we were invited, and it was really a great day - fully worth the royal scolding this visit earned me afterwards.

It all seemed quite decrepit an worn to me back then. But I suspect it was only brand new, about to be built, because now the place is a bishop's seat and very nice indeed.

Yes, this was short, and filled with obscure hints and mysteries. Sorry. I hope to have time and energy for more in the coming days.

And now to the Wordle

ABBEY:

And again today, I solved with only green letters and got an invite to create a free account.
Thanks, but no thanks

Solving with only greens is totally fitting for today - the first day of April where The Colour of the Month is:

Poetry Monday :: The Moon Tonight ~ Updated with Photo

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: The Moon Tonight

The Moon at 7 pm.

The moon tonight
looks clear and bright -
at least I hope it will

It'll rise and shine
for me and mine
and sit upon the mill.

Then later on,
when night is gone
It settles on the hill

A little while
then dip and smile.
Give way for morning chill.

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

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

Apr 6 Passover
Apr 13 Fabulous
Apr 20 Superhero
Apr 27 Plaid
May 4 Back pack
May 11 Futuristic landscape

Sunday Selection :: Palm Sunday Edition :: Colour26 Søndagsbilleder :: Palmesøndag :: Colour 26

Today is Palm Sunday. As the Danish climate does not allow palm trees, we use boxwood branches instead.

-- ⸙⸙ --

I dag er det palmesøndag. Da klimaet i Danmark ikke er til palmer, bruger vi buksbomgrene i stedet.

For many years this cross had me mumbling not so nice words. It's just not made for tucking palm branches behind, neither through the hanger. This year I simply drilled a hole where the two parts meet and put the palm branch into the hole. Perfect!

-- ⸙⸙ --

Det her kors har irriteret mig hvert år til palmesøndag igennem adskillige år. Det duer bare ikke til at hænge palmegrene bag. Put den om bagved, og korset hænger og vingler, prøv at stikke dem gennem ophænget og alle bladene går af og det hænger alligevel sært. I år greb jeg boremaskinen og borede et hul der hvor de to dele mødes. Det virker bare!

Our combined work-, laundry-, and scullery needed a wall clock. This one was perfect. The only bother was that as soon as I had hung it up, I had to take it right back down to adjust it to that dang-blasted Daylight Saving Time, that began this night. Notice the small hand - it is the colour of the Month: Ocean Twilight Blue!

-- ⸙⸙ --

Der var også brug for et nyt ur ude i vores bryggers. Det her passer fint. Det eneste irriterende er at jeg straks jeg havde hængt det op, måtte pille det ned igen for at stille det om til den &%¤#£$€ sommertid, der startede i nat!
    Læg mærke til den lille viser, den er månedens farve: Ocean Twilight Blue!

Notice teh owl-hook. Finally I got them up. It and oits mate, shown below was a Christmas gift in 2024.

-- ⸙⸙ --

Læg mærke til ugleknagen. Den og dens makker nedenunder fik jeg også endelig hængt op. De var min julegave i 2024!

And Friday I found a new, children's rake. I use it in my greenhouse and mainly for the mucking of the chicken coop, where there's no room for full sized utensils. The old one was worn out - yes you can wear out a rake! The new one got some spray paint before its first job.

-- ⸙⸙ --

I fredags købte jeg en ny rive i børnestørrelse. Jeg bruger den af og til i drivhuset, men mest når jjeg muger ud hos hønsene, hvor der ikke er plads til at bruge almindelige redskaber. Den gamle var helt slidt op.
    Den nye rive skulle lige males inden den blev taget i brug, så jeg gik amok med et par spraydåser.

And today's Wordle was a word I did not know:

Wordle 1.744 6/6
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
🟩🟩🟩⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Fredagsfrustration - folketingsvalget 2026 Friday Frustration - Election 2026

Valg er ikke for tøsedrenge.

Normalt er der ikke meget om politik og valg og den slags her på bloggen, men i dag gøres der en undtagelse.

Dette opslag vil forsvinde om kort tid, men forbliver som en side under "de glemte sider" neders til højre - sammen med mine andre politiske opslag.

Medens valgresultatet på landsplan kun var ubehageligt, var valget ved mit lille valgsted endog overvældende uhyggeligt.

Først resultatet på landsplan.

  -- ❎ --  ❌  -- 🇽 --

Elections aren’t for wimps.

Usually, there isn’t much about politics, elections and that sort of thing on this blog, but today I’m making an exception.

This post will disappear shortly, but will remain as a page under 'De glemte sider' (The Forgotten Pages) at the bottom right – along with my other political posts.

While the national election result was merely unpleasant, the election at my little polling station was downright scary.

First, the national picture

Vi plejer at sige, at der er  ca. 20 % af de stemmeberettigede, der er "grå stemmer" Dvs. stemmer, der enten er afgivet i pprotest eller i dumhed eller lignende og går til et parti. der ikke kan bruges til en eventuel regeringsdannelse. Et eksempel er Borgernes Parti. Denne gang nærmer den procentsats sig 30. Og det uhyggelige er her, hvor højt op de populistiske og nationalistiske partier er kommet.

Det bliver en gyser, hvis jeg ser på mit 'hood.

  -- ❎ --  ❌  -- 🇽 --

We usually say that around 20% of eligible voters are ‘grey votes’ – that is, votes cast either in protest or out of stupidity or similar reasons, and which go to a party that cannot be used to form a government. One example is Borgernes Parti (right wing populist - one man army). This time, that percentage is approaching 30. And the scary thing is just how high the populist and nationalist parties (O & Æ)have climbed.

The real horrors begin when I look at my neighbourhood:

Tænk at så mange af de pæne og normale mennesker, jeg hilser på, når vi går en tur i skoven, tømmer brevkassen, holder fastelavn i forsamlingshuset osv. virkelig stemmer på dem. Jeg går og undrer mig: Hvem er de mon, de 39, der har stemt på liste O? Og, og, og ...
    Så priser jeg mig lykkelig over at vi i den grad ikke er normgivende for Danmark som helhed.

Hvis jeg kigger lidt mere intenst og måske endda mistroisk på mine naboer i den kommende tid, er det vist ikke så sært.

  -- ❎ --  ❌  -- 🇽 --

To think that so many of the nice, ordinary people I greet when we go for a walk in the woods, empty the letterbox, celebrate Carnival at the village hall, and so on, actually vote for them. I find myself wondering: Who on earth are those 39 people who voted for O? And, and, and...
    Then I count myself lucky that we are by no means representative of Denmark as a whole.

If I look a little more closely – and perhaps even suspiciously – at my neighbours in the coming days, it probably isn’t that strange.