mandag den 20. april 2026

A-Z Challenge ~ Q for Queue

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

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 plan to post the A-Z post around noon every day of April.

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.


Today my starting word is Queue.
The average today is 4,8 or moderately challenging - I am average today.

Wordle 1.766 5/6
⬜⬜🟨⬜🟩
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟩⬜🟩⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Queue ... During my travels in the countries behind the Iron Curtain, I have seen my share of queues.
The first few times we saw a queue, we simply queued up as did everybody around, because we supposed something valuable was to be had at the end of the queue. But after standing in line for a long time in inclement autumn weather for umbrellas and fake wool suits, we learnt to send a person up to the the head of the line to espy what exactly we were queueing for.

We had been told that that there was no unemployment behind the Iron Curtain, that people ate well and that children and young ones were well educated and everybody worked for a brighter future.
    I had a hard time reconciling this to what I saw and heard. When we went shopping for instance, we saw shops that were more often than not half empty and it was a time consuming endeavour to go shopping. Once inside the store, we queued up more times. First we stood in one line to place our order, often asking for several things not in stock until we hit on a compromise item. We got a note with the price, then waited in another line to pay and get a receipt to go with the note, and then in a final one where we handed in the note and got the now carefully wrapped item. Guaranteed full employment, sure, but what a glorious waste of time.

And now for today's Wordle:

lørdag den 18. april 2026

A-Z Challenge ~ P for Palms

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 hope to post every day until the end of April.

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.


Today my starting word is Palms.
The average today is 4,3 or moderately challenging - I am well below average today with a lucky guess.

Wordle 1.764 3/6
⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
🟨⬜⬜🟨🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Palms ... We saw lots of palm trees on our journey through Egypt and Sudan. I'd like to re-tell a bit from earlier, as it contains palm leaves. We - seven of us - were staying in a small village some hours' walk from Loa - which is fairly close to Nimule on the Uganda border:

  The women in the village amused themselves by putting us to all sorts of jobs we couldn't manage, like washing clothes and grindin sesame seeds. Then when we were messing around with a tub and a washboard, the women, laughing and teasing, pushed us away and, gesticulating and talking loudly, showed how to do it. The boys experienced the same thing, being set to weave cages from palm leaf stems. It looked easy when one of the men did it. With a knife, he split the stem into four, drilled a few holes here and there, split another stem, folded and bent, and poof, he had made a small box with a lid that could be opened able hold 3-4 kg of tomatoes. The boys' first attempt was not good, to put it mildly, and there was much laughter.

And now for today's Wordle:


fredag den 17. april 2026

A-Z Challenge ~ O for Ocean

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 hope to post every day until the end of April.

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.


Today my starting word is Ocean.
The average today is 4,5 or moderately challenging - I am still at or just above average.

Wordle 1.763 5/6
⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
🟩⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟩🟩⬜🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩


Ocean ... Have I ever actually sailed an ocean?

I do not think so. It depends largely on your definition of an ocean. I sailed the Mediterranean sea - which according to some sources is a part of the Atlantic ocean, but I think it's not. Anyhow this trip was quite dramatic. We're still back in time, travelling to Aftica in old buses. We left the buses behind in Latakia, Syria and went to Egypt and Sudan.
 
We boarded a Russian passenger ship in Latakia bound for Alexandria, Egypt late one Thursday evening in September ... but the ship did not set sail until next morning.

We had a storm, a humongous one. The trip, that should have taken us only one day, took three. One morning the sun rose, at the starboard side of the ship, and later set in the very same spot. After the first morning we had our meals handed to us in vomit bags - and nothing to drink. The crew on the Russian ship was of the conviction that drinking made you sick. Of course we raided the bar for Russian Pepsi-cola, and drank it down. When we could get any, that is, because the sales persons were sea sick, and the bar was closed most of the time. One of the boys was big and brawny, and not afraid of anything. He went and spoke to the captain, and from then on one of the ship's crew manned the bar, and we bought and drank until the bar ran out. It was well stocked with drinkables for a one-day trip, but this one lasted three.
I do not remember what we did then, but I had one of those Russian Pepsi bottles with me on the whole journey and for long after - until it broke, actually. It was closed with a flip-top. Don't ask me why I brought one along for the journey, but I did.

Even if a lot of us strangely did not become sea-sick (we slept out in the open on the deck instead of down below in the stuffy cabins, I do not know if this helped) it was tiring to be thrown around all the time. And the noises were incredible. The propeller of the ship often went above sea and turned round with a whining sound, shaking the ship,  until it again submerged. Me and a few others went to look at it, and were chased away by the crew, the big waves washed over the deck and it was dangerous.

When finally we made it to port, we were not in Alexandria at all, but in Port Said. Still Egypt, but far off the mark.

And now for today's Wordle:
Knowing now what I answered Mimi: Wordle has 12,966 valid five-letter words. Out of which, 2,309 words are official answers. 10,657 are available to use as guess-only words. I think that there's quite a lot obscure words among the solutions.

torsdag den 16. april 2026

A-Z Challenge ~ N for Nomad

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 hope to post every dayuntil the end of April.

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.


Today my starting word is Nomad.
The average today is 5,5, or very challenging -- I am still at or just below average, and I could have done better, guess number four was not smart, as I knew this could not be the solution. But even after getting it, I was not sure of the meaning of today's solution and had to look it up after.

Wordle 1.762 5/6
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟩⬜🟨⬜
🟨🟩🟨⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟨🟩⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Nomad ... Yes we met nomads while travelling.

In Egypt, we took a train from Cairo to the Aswan dam - more I hope later.
As we rode the train through the desert, where we experienced a sandstorm, the train stopped in small towns or near villages. Once the train stopped in the middle of the desert. There was a building next to the track - more like a glorified bus stop, open to one side with an overhanging roof. I guess it was for shelter against sun and rain for waiting passengers. Three men, dressed in flowing robes got off here and started walking purposefully away over the endless sand. As far as we were able to see - and we looked at the men for a long time - there was nothing but sand and the ruler straight line of the train tracks with the stop, dwindling in the distance.
Our guess was that those were nomads, due for the nearest oasis.

And now for today's Wordle:



onsdag den 15. april 2026

Words for Wednesday :: April 15 :: Only the Words

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 c
oordinator 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:
Shell
Deck
Chest
Proof
Dawn
Effective
    and/or the following words which are seldom used any longer
Brabble — a loud, dumb argument
Izzard — the letter z
Picaroon — a scoundrel


Sorry, I got lost in Unicorn Farm, trying to nail down and correct an elusive error.

Writing might happen later.