A to Z April Challenge - part two

Why do I always rush into things without planning them? My excuse is that I haven't the time to stop and think but then I spend a great deal more time ironing out the kinks and creases in my projects. 'Twas ever thus and hardly likely to change now.

Anyway, what I should have said in my previous post is that the A-Z Challenge is a blog hop and if I add the nifty code I think a list will appear . . . I think . . . sometimes I'm remarkably dense, you know.

Well, here goes. Actually, composing this post is quite trying as Blogger seems to be on a Go Slow and words do not appear until five more words have been added - and that's okay if you're a brilliant touch typist - not so good if your fingers are a bit hit and miss, like mine so that what you think you've written appears as a strante languste like tyhat! 

A to Z April Challenge 2012

I’ve just signed up to Arlee Bird's A to Z April Challenge. Guided by the letters of the alphabet the challenge is to write a post every day apart from Sundays in April. Some people choose a theme, others write randomly while still others limit themselves to fifty words a day.

It's a good way to exercise your writing muscle and to reach and read other blogs. Last year more than 1000 bloggers took part and there are 75 who have signed up today already.

Oh, and it's Lee's birthday today, so go and wish him a Happy Day:-)

Reflections on the A to Z blogging challenge

I had reservations about meeting the challenge since I’m an enthusiastic starter and not always a stayer but having decided to join I was determined to finish. After all, I normally blog at least once a day – what could be so difficult?

I found it challenging on several levels. Keeping posts short meant curbing my natural verbosity and this I did not always manage! Disabling comment moderation was something I did for a while but had to reinstate because I simply could not see easily when new comments had been made - I like to respond to people who have taken the time to leave a remark. Adopting a theme, as many did, might have been helpful, but I was already following a topic on the ABC Wednesday meme. Trying to keep a balance between fact and fiction, serious and more light-hearted, was something I could have done better.

The most challenging part, however, was trying to visit different participants while also keeping up with the blogs I normally follow. I fell down on this and feel I neglected many.

The most rewarding result was reading bloggers I might normally have missed and I’m only sorry I was not able to visit many more. Would I take the challenge again? Yes, but not just yet!!

Finally, I thank all the organisers of this marathon. It would be interesting to know how many of the original ‘names on the list’ actually started the challenge and also how many started but could not finish, for whatever reason. The bloggers I admire are the ones who work full-time and have a family to bring up – they must be very disciplined! Those days are behind me and my days are pretty much my own – even so, I found time pressing, so goodness knows how they managed. 

April A to Z blogging challenge Zed

Z is the 26^th and final letter in the modern alphabet. It is pronounced zed in UK (sometimes zad) and zee in USA. Its older English name was izzard.

Z stems from the Greek zeta which originates from zayin, the seventh letter in the Semitic alphabet.

In mathematics z is the third unknown quantity in an algebraic expression. Descartes introduced x, y and z as symbols for unknown quantities in 1637.

In mediaeval times z was the symbol for 2000. 

April A to Z blogging challenge Ye

I expect many, if not all of you have seen signs like ‘Ye Olde Curiositie Shoppe’. ‘Ye’ was pronounced ‘the’.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com explains it thus:

The y in this ye was never pronounced (y) but was rather the result of improvisation by early printers. In Old English and early Middle English, the sound () was represented by the letter thorn (þ). When printing presses were first set up in England in the 1470s, the type and the typesetters all came from Continental Europe, where this letter was not in use. The letter y was used instead because in the handwriting of the day the thorn was very similar to y. Thus we see such spellings as y^e for the, y^t or y^at for that, and so on well into the 19th century.

      

Nonetheless, I suppose most of us will continue to say ‘Ye’ rather than ‘The’ – it sounds so quaint!

‘Ye’ is also the archaic second person plural, though sometimes used in the second person singular.

It is well known from Robert Herrick’s ‘To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time’ –

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,

Old Time is still a-flying:

And this same flower that smiles to-day,

Tomorrow will be dying.

It is seen frequently in the Authorized King James Bible as in ‘Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’ (Matthew 11:28)  

April A to Z blogging challenge Xanthippe

Common or Eurasian shrew (Sorex araneus)

Image copyright Andy Sands

Parents often wish to give their children unusual names, to endow them with some individuality. Xanthippe trips off the tongue quite neatly but should be avoided, for fear that the characteristics of Socrates’ wife are imparted with the name.

Xanthippe was a shrew – not literally, of course, heaven forefend. Why would anyone marry a small furry beast? If the small bright eyes and long pointed snout didn’t put off a potential suitor, then the red-tipped teeth might prove less than attractive. Add to that the potential for a female to raise four litters of seven babies each year – that’s fifty-six babies in two years (they only live for just under two years) and you can see that a shrew is not a desirable mate for anyone earning an average wage, whatever that is these days.

No, Socrates married a scold, a nagging, vexatious woman and so such women are sometimes referred to as Xanthippe. Some scholars believe that Socrates’ delight in outdoor discussions was a direct result of his wife’s irritability. Others assume that because he was unconventional he was difficult to live with and tried Xanthippe’s patience so that she became exasperated.

Anyway, don’t choose Xanthippe for your sweet new-born daughter. Xanthe could be a good choice, so long as she isn’t jaundiced – that might not be thought very diplomatic. 

April A to Z blogging challenge Wisdom

April A to Z blogging challenge Wisdom

‘Wisdom comes with age,’ it’s said,

But what age must I reach

Before perception fills my head

And thoughts precede my speech?

With every passing year I find

I’m child-like yet and silly,

While others educate their minds

I’m still just froth and frilly.

I should be wise by now, you see,

It’s showing in my teeth,

But though I may look ninety-three

I’m eighteen underneath.

April A to Z blogging challenge Violets

This is an edited version for the A to Z blogging challenge of a story I wrote a few months ago.

My grandmother lived a short distance from our house and I visited her every day. She was a gracious old lady who had been an important part of my young life. Sometimes I stayed with her and slept in her guest bedroom, a pretty room decorated in lavender and white.

I enjoyed the bedtime ritual in her house. First I would have a bath in the claw-foot tub in her huge, chilly bathroom and then wrap myself in one of her large soft white towels and go through to her bedroom where she would brush my hair – one hundred strokes counted out in her soft voice as the bristles swept smoothly through my long straight locks. Then she would give me her box of talcum powder and I would dip the puff into the silky dust, loving the feel of the satin ribbon between my fingers. Sometimes she would dab a little of her perfume on my wrists – it matched the powder – then I would feel so grown up.

Whenever I stayed with her she gave me a sprigged nightgown to wear that had belonged to my mother when she was a child. It had a high neck and long sleeves and fell from a smocked yoke to my feet in gentle folds. There was plenty of room in it to tuck up my feet until they were warm enough to make contact with the cool bed linen.

Then we would go downstairs to the sitting room, a room full of curios and books and plants. The subdued light made the room welcoming and comfortable and though I must have stayed with my grandmother at different times of the year, it is the winter evenings that I recall most clearly, a log fire burning brightly in the grate and casting flickering shadows on the walls and ceiling. My face would grow hot as I leant forward to hold the long toasting fork ever closer to the glowing coals. Crumpets dripping with butter and honey – ‘As many as you like,’ she always said and I would hug myself with glee at the promise. At home such treats were strictly rationed and I always longed for more.

Strangely, at my grandmother’s house I never managed to eat more than the two I was given at home, but it was the thought that I could have more if I wanted that gave me a wonderful feeling of being indulged. Afterwards my grandmother would read to me as I sipped hot chocolate from a delicate china mug. When the story finished, always at the same moment that I drained the last sweetness, my grandmother would hold out her hand and together we would climb the stairs. She would tuck me in, pulling the sheet and blankets firmly round me so that I felt safe and contained. She would kiss me – ‘Night, night, sleep tight. Sweet dreams.’

I would turn on my side and draw up my knees and gaze around the room, lit by a night light – my grandmother knew I hated the dark. The pictures on the walls were of flowers that she had painted and framed - primroses, honeysuckle, bluebells. The curtains and bedspread were soft cotton patterned with tiny pink rosebuds entwining dainty violets. On the bedside table, next to the water carafe and glass, was a small charmingly decorated tin of Parma violets more treasured for their scent than their taste. They smelt like my grandmother – or should it be that she smelt like them?

The next morning I would go home, happy to join my family once more and knowing that I would see my grandmother the next day. I thought I would see her every day for the rest of my life.

My granddaughter lives nearby and visits me most days. Sometimes she stays overnight. Yesterday she burst in excitedly. ‘Look, Grandma, look at these. Aren’t they lovely? Mummy put them in a special box for me. She said you’d like them.’ She thrust a tissue wrapped parcel into my hand and hopped from foot to foot, impatient for me to open it.

The first thing I saw was the lid with its painted flowers and I knew, before I removed it, what was inside. Slowly I took off the top and there, nestled in shreds of lavender paper, were Parma violets. The released scent filled the air. I offered one to my granddaughter. She smelt it then put it in her mouth. ‘Ugh!’ she said and I smiled. I don’t like the taste, either, but the smell reminds me of my grandmother – it was the cologne she always wore. 

April A to Z blogging challenge Uvula

Uvula – we all have one. It’s that funny little soft bit that hangs from the roof of the mouth near the back of your throat.

Diagram courtesy of Wikipedia

I looked up uvula, just to make sure I’d got the right word – I always check everything, even when I’m absolutely sure I’m correct – and found out some interesting facts. It’s fairly obvious that the uvula plays an important role in speech but for some people it does not close correctly against the back of the throat. This results in nasal speech when a lot of air comes down the nose and the speaker cannot articulate some consonants.

English has no uvular consonants, though many European and African countries do. The most remarkable example of uvular consonants is in the Khoisan or click languages of Southern and Eastern Africa.

Sometimes the uvula becomes swollen, typically in children with tonsillitis. Other causes include, among other things, dehydration, infection and allergic reaction. Some children are born with a split (bifid or bifurcated) uvula. New-born babies with a cleft palate will also have a split uvula.

Do you or your partner snore? Blame it on your uvula! It will not be a problem to people born in some parts of Ethiopian and Eritrea where a traditional healer removes all or part of the uvula. Strangely, this does not seem to result in nasal speech unless the tonsils have also been removed.

In the course of my reading I discovered something unbelievable! Some people have their uvulas pierced and decorated with rings. It is an unusual piercing, since there is a strong gag reflex associated with the uvula. There is also an associated health hazard for if the jewellery should come loose and be inhaled, surgery would be necessary to locate and remove it.

April A to Z blogging challenge Soused mackerel/herring

Mackerel in an ovenproof dish

I really wanted to souse herrings but couldn’t get any so I opted for mackerel. Mackerel is best eaten soon after it is caught as it is inclined to develop a muddy taste but as it was going to be soused I thought it would probably be alright. Time will tell!

In the past I have soused fresh fish in a mixture of vinegar and herbs and spices but this time I have tried a different method by which the fish is cooked in the mixture and not merely left to pickle.

Ingredients

8 mackerel, prepared

1 onion, (I used a red onion) peeled and sliced

198g/7 oz soft brown sugar

3 bay leaves

12 peppercorns

6 juniper berries

500ml/17½ fl.oz cider vinegar

Ready for the oven

1:  Set oven to gas mark 2/150˚C/300˚F

2:  Put fish in an ovenproof dish

3:  Put onion, sugar, peppercorns, juniper berries and sugar over the fish

4:  Pour vinegar over to cover the fish. If more liquid is required, add water

5:  Cover the dish with a lid or kitchen foil

6:  Bake for 50-60 minutes until the fish is tender

7:  Remove from the oven and serve hot or cold

The fish will keep in the fridge for several days if required. 

April A to Z blogging challenge Roses

Our garden is burgeoning. There are very few flowers I dislike and many, many that give me immense pleasure. Summer brings a rich diversity of blooms, their scents carried on the warm breeze - jasmine, honeysuckle, mock orange and roses.

 The roses we have work hard for their places, producing flowers, scent and colour to delight bees and butterflies and providing shelter for birds as they pick and peck among the leaves and petals for sustenance.

The late Eva Cassidy sings Rabbie Burns’ ‘My love is like a red, red rose’. Listen and enjoy. 

O my Luve's like a red, red rose, 
That's newly sprung in June: 
O my Luve's like the melodie, 
That's sweetly play'd in tune. 

As fair art thou, my bonie lass, 
So deep in luve am I; 
And I will luve thee still, my dear, 
Till a' the seas gang dry. 

Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear, 
And the rocks melt wi' the sun; 
And I will luve thee still, my dear, 
While the sands o' life shall run. 

And fare-thee-weel, my only Luve! 
And fare-thee-weel, a while! 
And I will come again, my Luve, 
Tho' 'twere ten thousand mile!

April A to Z blogging challenge Quotidian

This challenge is inspired and initiated by Arlee Bird at Tossing It Out. The objective is to  post every day in April, apart from Sundays, using the alphabet sequentially.

The co-hosts are as follows:-

Jeffrey Beesler at World of the Scribe

Alex J Cavanaugh at Alex J Cavanaugh

Jen Daiker of Unedited

Candace Ganger of The Misadventures in Candyland

Karen J Gowen at Coming Down the Mountain

Talli Roland

Stephen Tremp of Breakthrough Blogs

Quotidian is a wonderful word to roll around the mouth. Before I knew what it meant I imagined it standing tall and proud, chest thrust out, gazing with steely expression into the far distance. I expected it to describe something outstanding. It is a noble word, one to be classed with Quinquereme and Quiescent and Quietude.

How disappointing, then, that it is merely a synonym for commonplace.

April A to Z blogging challenge Pee

Last week I bought ‘Life of Pee’ by Sally Magnusson. I already knew of the role of urine in curing leather and promoting compost but was surprised to read of its use as an alternative to yeast.

This fascinating, well-researched little volume will provide any reader with facts to astound a captive audience!

When I told my youngest daughter I’d bought ‘Life of Pee’ she gravely corrected me. ‘No, ‘Life  of Pi’’ she said. I read that a few years ago and I can assure you there are more smiles- and shocks - to be found in this book.

April A to Z blogging challenge Olive

My mother’s name was Olive. My father used to call her Ollie - my eldest niece thought her name was Holly!

Olive was born in 1904 in Hampshire. This photograph was taken before the outbreak of the First World War. 

She and my father married in 1927. They had three children, of whom I am the youngest and the only one still living. The three children presented them with eight grandchildren and, by the time my mother died in 2001, thirteen years after my father, there were thirteen great-grandchildren.

Olive was good with children – calm and kind and fun. Children relaxed on her lap or in her arms. She taught us card games and dots and boxes, shove ha’penny and Ludo, Scrabble and Monopoly. She and my father encouraged us to be observant and to look beyond the obvious. She was an accomplished needlewoman and had a sweet, true singing voice. I remember growing up and singing with her in the kitchen.

I think about her on most days but particularly on this day, my birthday. I was a late and unplanned addition to the family and Olive always said, ‘Children bring their own love’. I learnt a lot from her. I miss her.

April A to Z blogging challenge Newts

We have common smooth newts (Lissotriton vulgaris) in our garden pond. The story of our first newt can be found here. I’ve also written about newts here and here.

Newts are amphibians of the Salamander family (Salamandridae) and are found in North America, Northern Europe and western Asia and Russia. They start life in water and develop into juveniles that live on land, when they are known as efts, mentioned in ‘The Water-Babies’ by Charles Kingsley – ‘ . . .these efts are nothing else but the water-babies . . .’ 

One of their most intriguing characteristics is their ability to regenerate lost or damaged limbs and organs. Scientists have studied this regeneration for decades. Humans can regenerate liver tissue but that is all.

As adults newts may be fully or semi-aquatic. Terrestrial newts return to the water each year to breed, generally during June and July. The fertilised female lays 7 to 12 single eggs each day and usually places them on the leaves of pond plants. The leaves are often folded over and stuck to the eggs to protect them. One female may lay 400 eggs in the breeding season.

The eggs hatch in about three weeks and the tadpoles eat algae, small invertebrates and other tadpoles. They absorb oxygen directly from the water through feathery gills. After ten weeks they have metamorphosed into air-breathing efts with lungs. They are capable of reproduction at three years.

On a quiet summer day it is possible to hear a ‘popping’ sound as a newt comes to the pond surface for air. It is always a cause for delight when newts are seen – they seem to be shy, retiring creatures and with their olive green or khaki colouring they are well camouflaged in a pond busy with other, more readily spotted inhabitants and habitués.

April A to Z blogging challenge Moths

Yesterday my husband asked me if I knew that some moths migrate. I hadn’t really thought about it but decided it sounded probable, as I knew butterflies migrated and moths and butterflies belong to the same order, Lepidoptera.

Then he asked me which would migrate most speedily – birds or moths. Logically, at least as far as logic exists in my brain, I thought it must be moths – they’re lighter and smaller – but in fact birds and moths take the same amount of time to travel.

Night-flying moths match birds in efficient speed and direction, flying between 30 and 65 km per hour, but use different tactics. With a following wind they may fly as fast as 90 kmh. Birds navigate using visual markers, like rivers or mountains, the sun as a compass, the earth’s magnetic field and, for those that fly by night, the stars. They also fly in flocks led by experienced adults. Moths do not fly in flocks but have a genetically pre-determined preferred direction and are able to detect fast-moving winds. They only migrate on nights when the winds are favourable for the direction in which they need to travel and choose the most auspicious altitude. They may fly as far as 700 km in an eight-hour flight.

Hummingbird Hawk-moth

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Most of the UK’s 2,500 species of moths are resident but some are visitors, often from as far away as North Africa, some 3,000 miles. One stunning moth is the Hummingbird Hawk-moth which journeys from the Mediterranean and North Africa. It arrives between April and December with most migrants appearing in August and September. In hotter summers greater numbers are seen. This moth breeds in UK and it is thought that some of the offspring may endure in milder winters.

The Silver Y moth has been monitored flying vertically to catch faster winds at high altitude. It breeds profusely but very few moths born in Britain survive the winter.

April A to Z blogging challenge Laura

Laura Marling is a singer- songwriter from Eversley, Hampshire. She started her singing career at 16, before she had left school, and has built a solid fan base in the following five years. Her songs are haunting, driven, thoughtful, each one different. Singing alone with her guitar or with her backing band, her work begs to be played again and again and her music wedges itself into the memory.

Laura has toured widely throughout the British Isles and in North America, Australia and Asia and soon embarks on a trip to Argentina.

This year she has already won two major awards, Best British Female Artist at the 2011 Brit Awards and the NME Best Solo Artist.  I expect that she will win many more.

April A to Z blogging challenge Khaki

This challenge is inspired and initiated by Arlee Bird at Tossing It Out. The objective is to  post every day in April, apart from Sundays, using the alphabet sequentially.


Khaki is an Urdu word for dusty. It derives from the Persian ‘khak’ meaning dust.

It was first used for military uniform by a British corps of Guides during the Indian Mutiny of 1857. They were known as ‘The Mudlarks’.

April A to Z blogging challenge Jelly

This challenge is inspired and initiated by Arlee Bird at Tossing It Out.

                                     Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Jelly on the plate,

Jelly on the plate,

Wibble, wobble,

Wibble, wobble,

Jelly on the plate.

This skipping rhyme has a steady rhythm which helps the skipper to keep in time with the turning rope.

Why are frightened people sometimes described as ‘shaking like a jelly’? Jellies don’t quiver unless the dish or plate they’re on is shaken. I suppose the reference is to the involuntary shivering of both the terrified person and the inanimate jelly.

How would jellies react if they had feelings and knew they were going to be eaten? Would the first suspicion come as the gelatine had boiling water poured over it?

Here is a short report from an intelligent jelly. It comes to an abrupt halt as the jelly enters its final phase and can no longer communicate with the outside world.

I am a green jelly. Well, actually, I am a green jelly cube joined to other green jelly cubes in a 3 x 4 rectangle.

I have been removed from my packaging. This tells me that I am a lime jelly.

I have been placed in a metal dish with ridges and curves. I hear someone call this a ‘jelly mould’.

I see clouds of steam coming from the chimney of a water container. This is a kettle.

Boiling water is pouring onto my companions and me.

My fellow cubes and I are becoming one. Is this marriage?

We all speak with one voice now, indistinguishable from each other.

We are liquid and we smell delicious. We slop and slosh in the jelly mould.

After a while we can’t move so easily. We are becoming solid.

We are put into the refrigerator. It’s cold in here.

We are taken out and into the dining room.

Lots of little people are waiting for us.

We see ice-cream. Ice-cream is very cold and much more solid than us.

We are cut into smaller pieces and put on plates.

The little people shake the plates and we move around. We wobble. It’s fun.

We are joined by ice-cream. Brrr!!

A spoon comes down and scoops up a piece of us.

We enter a warm, dark place and begin to slide down, down, down . . . 

April A to Z blogging challenge Ink

This challenge is inspired and initiated by Arlee Bird at Tossing It Out.

The Chinese are credited with discovering and developing the first forms of ink. Made from a combination of pine smoke soot and lamp oil mixed with gelatine made from donkey skin and musk, it was used to blacken the surfaces of raised hieroglyphics carved in stone. The first known use of ink dates from around the 18^th century BC.

In India, ink developed and used since the 4^th century BC was made from burnt bones and tar. Other ancient cultures devised inks using natural colours from berries, plants and minerals.

By 400 AD a basic formula for ink was created and remained in use for centuries. It was a composition of iron salts, gallnuts, tannin and a thickener. It was known as iron gall ink. When first used the ink was bluish-black, soon deepening to black and fading after years to the brown colour familiar from old documents.

From the 20^th century onwards ink production became an industrial process.

Today it is possible to buy a huge range of inks in many splendid colours. For example, Noodler’s inks are produced in a variety of vibrant colours and for the most important documents, when recording must be preserved at all costs, waterproof/bulletproof inks are guaranteed to be permanent. The ink bonds with the celluloid in paper and, once dry, cannot be removed with water, acid, alcohol, solvents, bleach. It will not fade and will be as sharp as the day it was used. It is said that the ink will outlast the paper it is written on!