Reflections

Not mirrors or smooth garden ponds, or indeed the reflections of my favorite part of my favorite garden, the canal at Wisley, no, these are my reflections on the A - Z Challenge of last month.   I suppose the first thing is a bit of relief that it's over now, and some self satisfaction that I managed to complete it and get each post out on time.   There is also a bit of disappointment that on a couple of occasions I was distracted from what I wanted to write by needing to fit in with the alphabet.   By the end I had forgotten what those topics were, so like so many excellent ideas I have had for posts while driving or cutting grass they have vanished for ever.

But there are other sides to the challenge, the discipline of regular posting, the imaginative use of language to bend the theme to the desired subject, and maybe just a little stretching of vocabulary.   But the thing I have enjoyed most is visiting other blogs that I would not have found otherwise. I now follow three blogs that I didn't a couple of months ago, one might seem obvious the Trans-Gentle Wife, I had read a couple of Lucy's posts before, but following her posts has opened up another side of this weird life I now lead.   I love her compassion and her honesty, what shines through all her writing is that she is basically a really nice person.   Of course there is a natural link here, the others I have found I doubt if I would have otherwise.

"It is interesting to note" is a classic example of a blog I would never have looked for, written by a newly wed mid western american woman with dogs!   But I am enjoying her wry sense of humour and odd choices of subject.   Tales from the Laundry Room is from another American, a Christian Mother who just writes about what concerns her.   Of course there are others that I have visited, some I enjoyed some I didn't but these are the ones I am now following that I didn't before.   Like most of the blogs I follow they are not about a single subject they are a reflection of a whole person, their life, loves, and experiences, and that's what is really interesting.

So, it has been fun, it has been challenging, and for me it has also come at one of my busiest times of the year.   Would I do it again ~ Probably.