A to Z Blogging Challenge

It seems like March lasted for about five minutes.  It’s hard to believe it’s already April!  I knew March was practically over in the sense that I rely pretty heavily on calendars, but I still found myself a little surprised that yesterday was the very last day of March.

For many bloggers, April means the A to Z Blogging Challenge.  If you’re not familiar, it’s where you blog every day in April with something that corresponds to the day’s letter; A on the 1^st, B on the 2^nd, etc., and Sundays are your days off. 

I started this blog, way back in 2012, by participating in the A to Z Blogging Challenge.  I can’t believe that was ten years ago!  Wow!  I looked through some of the old posts and saw that there are some people I still interact with regularly via Blogger, which I think is pretty cool.  I also realized that my blogging has come a long way.  We had a very slow digital camera way back then and an even slower desktop computer.  It took so long to get a post up!  And adding pictures was such an ordeal, so I very rarely had any.  That has definitely changed!

I don’t have the best track record with the A to Z Blogging Challenge; I finished successfully in 2012 and 2015.  I didn’t participate in 2013, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020, or 2021.  I started but didn’t finish in 2014 and 2017.  But, the ten-year mark seems like a good time to jump back in, so here I go.

Since I’ve signed up at the last minute, I don’t have a theme, and I don’t have very many posts planned out.  I have a few drafts and ideas for things I’ve been meaning to post for a while, but definitely not 26 posts.  So, I’m open to ideas if there’s anything anyone wants to read about or see more pictures of.

So what about you?  Are you participating in this year’s A to Z Blogging Challenge?  How long have you been blogging? 

Azaleas

The azaleas are blooming!  Now that the azaleas are in bloom it’s stating to look like Spring is really here.  Spring is my favorite season, so it makes me especially happy when things start blooming.

Azaleas thrive in the southeast, so we have a lot of them in our yard, and are considering adding more.  I’d like to find a yellow azalea bush.  We have white, and various shades of pink - pale pink all the way to hot pink, but no yellow.  Yet.

I just love azaleas.  I think they’re so pretty, and they’re some of the first really colorful bushes to bloom here.  I love that there are so many different varieties of azaleas, and that the flowers are different sizes and colors.

According to Wikipedia, azaleas were first cultivated outside of greenhouses in Charleston, South Carolina.  Since South Carolina is my home state it makes me especially happy to have so many azalea bushes in bloom.

So what about you?  Do you like azaleas?  Are they in bloom where you are?

Alcott vs. Austen

Photo Credit Here

I’m a huge fan of Louisa May Alcott.  I have been since I was eleven years old, and read Little Women for the first time.  Jo March was (and still is) the coolest character ever with her temper, independent ways, and love of the written word.  Once I wandered into Jo’s world, I was forevermore an Alcott fan. 

I’m on my second copy of LittleWomen because my first copy literally fell apart from having been carried around so much, and read so many times.  I usually re-read it at least once a year. 

Jane Austen, on the other hand, is an author whose books I have never been able to get into.  I’ve tried, I really, really have. I make it about 25 – 30 pages in, and then I just can’t take it anymore.   I give up and move on to a book I enjoy.  I don’t know what it is, but I’ve never read something of hers and wanted to read more.

Friends and family tell me I “should” like Jane Austen’s books, and that I’m the Jane Austen “type”.  I’ve been given dozens of copies of various Jane Austen novels over the years, and they’ve all made their way to thrift stores, or used bookstores in trade for other books.

It really bugs me to be told I’m the Jane Austen “type” since I don’t like her books, but it also bugs me that there doesn’t seem to be (or at least I’ve never heard about) a Louisa May Alcott “type”.  Maybe none of us are cool enough to be typed as the creators of Jo March. 

I just think it seems like Jane Austen gets a lot more attention than Louisa May Alcott as a great author whose books you simply must read, despite the fact that Alcott’s books are much better than Austen’s.    So where do you stand on the matter of Alcott vs. Austen?  Are you a fan of either?  Both?  Neither?