Tag Archives: Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge

August 26, 2026 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: A Weird Fact I Learned from Reading Fiction

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I love this topic but struggled to come up with an answer for it because I don’t read many fiction books that share weird facts in them.

Finally, I thought of a response. When I was a teenager, one of my English teachers assigned “The Landlady” by  Roald Dahl to us. I’m afraid I must spoil the ending of this horror mystery tale in order to write my post, so do go read it first if you’re not already familiar with what happens. It’s a short read.

A white teacup filled with plain tea. Beside it is a white tea maker. Now that you’ve all had a chance to read it for yourselves,  this tale was about a young man who was meeting up with a landlady who happened to have a room available to rent to him. She was a rather strange woman who seemed to be obsessed with taxidermy. The story ends with the young man drinking a cup of tea she offered him that tasted faintly of bitter almonds.

We were all confused about that detail until our teacher told us that cyanide tastes like bitter almonds.

Yes, she poisoned him. After he died, she was planning to taxidermy him just like she had with her previous two boarders.

We were all a little horrified by how this story ended, but it was a memorable one for sure!

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August 19, 2026 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Foods From My Geographic Area That I Don’t Like

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I’m not a very picky eater, so this is going to be a short list.

A glass of red wine next to a bottle of red wine. I do not like alcohol (and have medical reasons to avoid it now anyway), so any wine, beer, or other alcoholic beverage made in Ontario isn’t something I will be imbibing.

Sushi Pizza. There’s a restaurant here in Toronto that serves it. While I love pizza, sushi is one of those foods I’ve never learned to enjoy. The seaweed wrap for it is far too salty and chewy for my tastes. Maybe it’s because my family never ate sushi when I was a kid?

Sausages. There are farms in Ontario that make all sorts of sausages, and I rarely if ever like any of them. Meat is something I eat, but I enjoy it far less than something like a warm, crusty loaf of bread with a little vegan butter and cherry jam on it.

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August 12, 2026 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Foods From My Geographic Area That I Love

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Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and here to see the full list of topics for the year.

A bottle of Quebec maple syrup in a glass container. It’s sitting on a wooden table, presumably ready to be poured on some food!One type of Canadian food I haven’t tried yet is Saskatoon berry pie, but I’d bet it will be amazing once I find a dairy-free version or recipe for it someday Everything else on this list is something I have eaten at least once.

I can’t possibly know what everyone has or hasn’t already tasted, so Wikipedia links are included in this post if anything I described is unfamiliar to you or you’d like to know more about them.

Maple syrup is at the top of my list for this topic because Southern Ontario is excellent at making it and it’s one of those foods that people buy here to give as gifts elsewhere. I know it’s collected in many other places on Earth, too, so I hope you all have had a chance to taste it if you wish to.

Poutine is delicious as well. You may not think that French fries, gravy, and cheese (or, in my case, vegan cheese) would go so well together, but they’re delicious. I prefer to add a few tablespoons of chopped green peppers for added flavour, although it’s not a traditional topping per se.

Butter tarts are something I wasn’t able to try until I finally found a bakery that makes a dairy-free version of them. Thank goodness for vegan and allergy-aware bakers is all I can say! They are an incredibly rich dessert that I adore, and I recommend them as well.

Peameal bacon sandwiches are a delicious lunch due to how rich and savoury this type of meat is. They’re typically served on the same sort of bun you might use for hamburger or veggie burger meat. I like to put some honey mustard on mine, but they’re good plain as well.

Nanaimo bars took some getting used to due to my dislike of shredded coconut, but they’re otherwise wonderfully fudgy and sweet.

Split pea soup is actually something my parents made on occasion when I was growing up in the United States. I didn’t realize there was a French version from Quebec, too, until I moved up here.

Finally, beaver tails are a classic Canadian treat. It’s a flat pastry that’s fried and then covered in toppings that range from a simple cinnamon and sugar to chopped up pieces of well-known candy or candy bars and copious amounts of icing. They are also teeth-achingly sweet, so you may want to consider splitting one with a friend or relative as a little bit can go a long way.

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August 5, 2026 · 2:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Reasons I’ve Stopped Reading or Watching a Series

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Drawing of a vintage television that has one of those test cards on it comprised of stripes of various vertical colours that used to show on channels that were off air for the night. The tv includes two antennas sticking up from the top of it. There are many reasons why I might stop watching a series, including:

– A hopeless storyline. I enjoyed the first few seasons of The Walking Dead, for example, but then lost interest because the characters could never gain a foothold and improve their lives. They always slid back into misery, and I really struggle to stay interested in shows that do that repeatedly.

– Prejudice that is portrayed in a positive light. That is to say I don’t watch shows or read books that encourage sexism, racism, ableism, classism, homophobia, etc. (This has thankfully become much less common now than it was in some older programs!) It’s fine if a show explores these topics, of course, and for some historical stuff it can’t be avoided easily or at all depending on which story is being told.  Just don’t make hatred look normal or admirable.

– A plot that is stretched out over too many seasons. I’d rather see things end prematurely than be dragged out longer than is necessary. (See also: The Handmaid’s Tale. It should have ended after a season or two, to be honest).

– If it includes anything related to spies, the criminal justice system,* war,  the military, or the police. I have extremely limited interest in these subjects at best, so a show really has to impress me to get to watch them if they include these themes.  Brooklyn Nine Nine was one of my rare exceptions to this rule.

– Bad or minimal character development. I need to feel emotionally connected with at least one character in order to want to keep watching something, and this is difficult to make happen if nobody has any depth to their personality or backstory.

 

*Also, why did my autocorrect try to turn the criminal justice system into Cthulhu? 😂

 

My criteria for books is honestly mostly the same as what I wrote above. If you keep the pacing even, don’t make things too dreary, and allow your characters to be well-rounded people instead of walking stereotypes, I’m open to just about any genre even if I do prefer speculative fiction in general.

Good storytelling transcends genre in my opinion!

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July 29, 2026 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: My Life in Photos or GIFs

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Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and here to see the full list of topics for the year.

 

Several of my loved ones, including my spouse, don’t like having their photos shared on the Internet. Their absence in their post is a sign of my respect for their wishes and nothing more. 😊

 

A middle-aged white woman with shoulder-light, wavy and loosely curly brown hair is standing beneath a tree filled with pink blossoms on it. She has a hand on her hip and is smiling gently in the shade.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love spending time in nature. This was taken at one of my favourite parks here in Toronto  back in May.

 

 

A yellow #2 pencil and a crumpled up piece of paper lying on an open spiral notebook.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Obviously, you all already know I spend a lot of time writing all sorts of things.

 

The same middle-aged white woman now standing in front of a pair of rainbow angel wings at a display at Pride.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We love Pride festivities  (assuming no migraines that weekend, of course). It’s such a happy and welcoming place. This was taken at the end of June during a rare quiet moment in the section of Pride where all of the booths and street food are located.

No, this didn’t happen on the same day as the park visit. Purple is my favourite colour, so I wear that shirt a lot.

 

Rows of free weights neatly lined up on a rack.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I gained some weight over the past few years while dealing with a few painful health conditions, one of which is now hopefully resolved for good.  While I still have weight to lose, I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished since last autumn when I started focusing on my health more. (My body can easily develop another migraine as a result of exercise, dehydration from perspiring more than usual, or how much I eat, so it’s a delicate balance between sticking to healthier habits and not triggering bonus migraines. Aren’t bodies fun? Ha!).

My favourite types of exercise include kickboxing, weightlifting, dancing, yoga, and walking. Swimming and cycling are great, too, although I haven’t done either in a long time.

 

A photo of myself and my mom sitting in comically oversized chairs in a park in Windsor. The chairs were made of metal. There are several large trees in the distance, and we are partially covered by shade.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whimsical thngs often attract my attention. Here’s a photo of me and my mom sitting in two comically large chairs in a park in Windsor, Ontario. We met up there in June and had a wonderful long weekend together.

And, look, I didn’t wear the same purple shirt that day. I did still wear purple, though. Ha!

 

Screenshot from Duolingo showing that I’ve finished the first seven sections of the Spanish language and am about a third of the way through the eighth and final one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, look how close I am to being finished with Spanish on Duolingo! There are eight sections of learning for this language, each of which is divided again into many subsections of lessons. I think I’ll finish it this year at this rate.

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July 22, 2026 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Books I Wish I’d Discovered Sooner

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Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and here to see the full list of topics for the year.

I tend to believe that the right books will appear when we need them, but there are a few books I wish had shown up earlier in my life.

Someone – probably my aunt or grandmother – gave me the first few Anne Shirley books as a kid, but I didn’t read the rest of them until I was an adult. Either my local library didn’t have them or someone else had borrowed them every time I looked as I do remember searching for them.

Book cover for Anne's House of Dreams by L.M. Montgomery. Image on cover shows Anne in a long blue dress that does not have a bustle. She’s looking off to the side with a serious and slightly sad expression on her face as she stands in front of her new home and a small grove of trees around it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anne’s House of Dreams by L.M. Montgomery

I read the first three books in this series as a preteen and watched the film version of Anne of Windy Poplars as well. Everything from Anne’s House of Dreams onwards were titles I read in adulthood. I enjoyed seeing Anne as a wife and mother, although her life turned out quite differently than I had dreamed it might.

 

Book cover for The Shelters of Stone (Earth's Children, #5) by Jean M. Auel. Image on cover shows a drawing of a running horse on a cave wall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Shelters of Stone (Earth’s Children, #5) by Jean M. Auel

It appears that I need to grumble about this series once again. 😂 I read the first four books many years after they were first released, and then I had to wait years to read books 5 and another long stretch of time before book 6. If only each new instalment could have been released every 3-4 years at the most so I could have finished this series sooner and not spent so much time assuming it would end satisfactorily. I will refrain from listing the many plot holes and abandoned conflicts that irritated me along the way. Ha.

I look forward to seeing what everyone else came up with!

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July 15, 2026 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Would You Go Skydiving? Why or Why Not?

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Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and here to see the full list of topics for the year.

A sky diver floating gracefully through the air on a nearly cloudless day. Their red and white striped parachute has just opened. This is an automatic no from me.

Life is filled with enough danger as is if I keep my own two feet firmly planted on the ground.

I have no reason to seek out more of either of those things by jumping out of planes. Honestly, that sounds terrifying.

If I wanted to be scared, I’d watch a horror movie instead. Zombies are frightening enough, and they’re not even real unless you’re talking about traditional Haitian folklore about stealing other people’s souls or those poor little carpenter ants that get infected by Ophiocordyceps unilateralis and start doing things that are very uncharacteristic for their species.

My theory about extreme sports like skydiving is that they mostly appeal to people whose lives are already pretty easy and who crave large doses of adrenaline.

The rest of us are busy just trying to survive one hour or day at a time as health issues, budget considerations, work problems,  caregiving responsibilities, etc. pop up.  We don’t need extra stuff on our plates. If anything, we probably want some peace and quiet as we rest our nervous systems instead of stimulate them.

We’ll see if this theory actually rings true as responses to this post start popping up. Who knows? Maybe I’m the only WWBC participant who doesn’t want to court danger. I have been wrong about some of my predictions for this community in the past!

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July 8, 2026 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Stores or Other Physical Place I Wish Still Existed

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Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and here to see the full list of topics for the year.

Old-fashioned wooden seats in an auditorium. There are so many physical places I wish still existed!

When I was a kid, there was a dollar theatre in one of the towns we moved to. I believe it closed down a year or two after we arrived there, but for a little while we could see older movies there for only $1 per person.

I miss record stores, too. They were a great place to browse and find new music. The one I visited was always playing various records as background music, so you could also discover new artists and songs just by asking the employees what was currently playing.

Chain bookstores still exist in my city, but many secondhand, niche, and indie bookstores have long since shut down, especially since 2020. You could find so many unique books in them, and they had a much calmer ambiance than the places that also sold, say, home decor and candles.

Now some clothing stores are sadly disappearing, too. One of the ones I shopped at for many years is trying to get all of their customers to order online, so I’ve switched to other stores that have my size in stock so I can see how clothes fit and feel before buying them. Clothing and shoes are two things I avoid ordering online due to how much variation there can be in size and feel from one brand to the next. There is no consistency there.

When I was a teenager, I used to walk laps in the mall with my friends. From what I’ve read, many of today’s teens don’t do that much anymore because some malls no longer allow unaccompanied minors in them and because parenting standards for when kids should be allowed to go out by themselves have shifted in many families.

Some of the malls in my city are busy, but others are terribly quiet or have even shut down. I wish the culture would shift back to a time when it was okay for teens to hang out at malls when they’re not in school. There’s nothing wrong with online interactions, but I think many people of all ages could do with more in-person socializing as well.

These are a few of the places I miss. How about all of you?

 

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July 1, 2026 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Websites I Wish Still Existed

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Several friends walking down the beach together on a foggy day. This shot was taken from far away and behind, so no facial features can be discerned. The Ooze was a Christian message board created by Spencer Burke that existed about 20 years ago when the Internet was quite different from how it is today. It was a gathering place for all sorts of people who were trying to come up with better ways to live out their faith. I met some incredible people there, including my spouse!

Even though I was a Christian back then, I generally avoided the theological discussions that took place there. I was much more interested in finding practical ways to quietly live out my beliefs as someone who had virtually no extra money to spare but who still wanted to help others in whatever ways I could.

While I am very far removed from that world now, I’d love to have a reunion with many of the genuine folks I met there. They were good people.

See also: message boards in general. I wish they would become popular again as I miss the depth of conversation that could be found in them about all sorts of niche topics. It was almost like taking a college course on those subjects.

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June 24, 2026 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Have You Ever Attended Your High School Reunion? Why?

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Black and white photo of an empty hallway filled with sunlight in a school.

For illustrative purposes only. This wasn’t my school.

No, I’ve never attended any of my high school reunions and I never will.

Let me explain.

I was homeschooled from preschool through grade 3 and had excellent experiences with that for the most part.

In grades 4 and 5, I attended a wonderfully friendly little school in the western portion of the United States. Had I stayed there, maybe things would have turned out differently.

The summer before I began grade 6, we moved cross-country to a rural part of the midwest because a church there hired my dad as their new pastor. Most of my classmates had been together since kindergarten, if not much earlier in life, and at best the majority of them were not at all interested in welcoming new kids into the fold.

I was bullied for years, mostly emotionally although there were a few minor physical altercations as well. In retrospect, these experiences caused severe depression and social anxiety. Yes, I made a few friends along the way, but no one I kept up with after graduation.

One thing that kept me going was the thought that someday I would never again be legally required to interact with any of the people who made my life miserable for so many years.

My final year of high school only included two classes on campus which was a massive relief. The rest of the time, I was joyfully taking courses at a local college for free thanks for a dual enrolment program my school offered.

I was confused by classmates who grieved the end of high school.  Their experiences were nothing at all like mine.

For me, those years are something I will revisit in the rare blog post but that is all.

I forgive those classmates and genuinely hope they’ve become kind and accepting adults, but I never developed the deep emotional connection to that chapter of my life that I’d need in order to be willing to travel internationally and spend a substantial sum of money just to attend a class reunion. The window of opportunity for that closed many years ago. No thank you.

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