Tag Archives: Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge

April 13, 2022 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: What’s On Your TBR List

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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.

Purple and white tulips lying on an opened book. If this prompt had been scheduled for the winter or summer, I would have had a very different answer to it!

You see, this is one of the best times of the year for enjoying the outdoors due to the mild weather.

My reading rates drop off when the sky is sunny and the temperatures are neither too hot nor too cold to make it uncomfortable to stay outdoors for several hours.

With that being said, here are a few books that bridge the gap between my love of reading and my love of the outdoors.

Ontario Birds: 125 Common Birds by Chris Fisher

Why I’m Interested: I’ve been casually interested in birdwatching for years but started doing it more intensely in 2020 when many other forms of entertainment were unavailable. It’s thrilling to catch sight of a bird you haven’t seen in your area before! I think red-tailed hawks are my favourite species so far.

 

Trees of Ontario: Including Tall Shrubs   by Linda Kershaw and Plants of Southern Ontario by Richard Dickinson and France Royer

Why I’m Interested: Identifying local trees and other plants is a brand new interest of mine. Someday I’d love to walk through the forest and be able to identify everything I see!

 

I’ve mentioned these books in previous posts, including a Wednesday Weekly Blogging post from the winter, but I am still looking forward to reading A Prayer for the Crown Shy (Monk & Robot #2) by Becky Chambers and Empty Smiles (Small Spaces #4) by Katherine Arden as well.

Why I’m Interested: I enjoyed the previous book(s) in both series quite a bit and am looking forward to catching up with the characters’ latest adventures.

I hope to review Chambers and Arden’s books on my blog this summer or autumn, but I am not planning to review the bird or foliage books. Speaking of which, I wonder how people do review books like that? It seems like that would be a little tricky since the authors are experts on the topic and many readers would not be.

Anyway, those are the books I’m most looking forward to reading in the near future.

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April 6, 2022 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: A Unique Talent You Have

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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 sketch of a heart in an otherwise blank notebook Not everything in our world is poetic or beautiful by any means, but my unique talent is finding the poetry and beauty in situations that at first glance do not seem to have a silver lining in them at all.

I’ll give you all a few examples of what I mean.

Years ago, I needed to go through some medical tests for a potentially life-threatening health condition that I was ultimately found not to have. While the technician was performing the ultrasound and taking notes of what she was finding, I quietly came up with pleasant thoughts about how the thump of my heart on the monitor sounded like something you’d expect to hear in a submarine as it dove deep into the calm, blue sea.

When my spouse and I went through financial trouble many years ago and had no money to spare for frivolities of any sort, I made taking long walks my chief form of entertainment and imagined that all of the trees were whispering delicious forest secrets to each other as the humans passed by unobtrusively below. It was honestly just was much fun as going to the movies or buying junk food and other things we couldn’t afford!

More recently, there were some protests here in Toronto earlier this year that clogged up some of our most important streets in the hospital district of the city. I imagined the sound of their angry voices on megaphones and the incessant beeping of their vehicles passing down the street while on their way to their destination were a warning from some future version of Toronto where such things were now commonplace.

This isn’t to say that i ignore the very real troubles we all go through or expect other people to think about scary life events the same way I do by any means. I simply find it easier to deal with them if I can make up whimsical stories about them in my head once I’ve done everything I can to change the situation.

Why worry excessively if there’s truly nothing else you can do in the moment? I think it’s better to look for the good in those moments if you can.

 

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March 30, 2022 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: What Mythological Animal You’d Want as a Pet

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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.

My first response to this prompt was, “none at all!”

I think I’ve read too many speculative stories about people who try to capture faeries or other magical creatures only to discover just how dangerous and foolish it is to mess with forces you don’t understand. For the sake of playing along, though, I’ll assume that any animal or creature I choose would be docile enough to make a half-decent companion, could look after itself, and wouldn’t mind if a human wanted to be near it sometimes.

An Ogopogo statue in British Columbia. It is green and grey and has parts of its body poking up from a blue stream.

An Ogopogo statue in British Columbia. Photo credit: Hamedog at the English-language Wikipedia

An Ogopogo (which is something like Canada’s version of the Loch Ness Monster) seems like a good match for these criteria.

Yes, I’d need to move to Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, but I can only assume that the Powers That Be ™ would somehow ensure that all of the details for that move would taken care of and that my new magical friend would be made aware of it. (Calling it my pet somehow doesn’t seem quite right).

Ogopogos generally leave humans alone, especially in contemporary stories about them. Mostly, they just swim around and occasionally startle tourists who weren’t expecting to see such an enormous and ancient creature calmly existing near them.

The only exception to this rule involves people who intend to harm the Ogopogo and/or the valley it protects. I would post signs warning visitors about the possibility of an Ogopogo attack if they had dishonourable intentions, but anyone who simply wanted to have a picnic or something by the lake with me shouldn’t have any trouble at all with them.

Honestly, I like the idea of a protective entity.

That’s something that many lakes and other natural places need nowadays, so I’d leave my Ogopogo do it’s sacred duty without any interruptions. If it wanted to swim up and say hello while I was enjoying the shore, so be it.

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March 23, 2022 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Your Favourite Podcast and Why

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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 pink neon sign that says “On Air.” To be honest with all of you, I rarely listen to podcasts.

Books are such a huge source of entertainment to me that I simply don’t have a lot of time left over for other things, but I am open to changing that under the right circumstances.

One of the few exceptions to this rule is Tell Me About Your Pain. It’s a podcast about living with chronic pain and the latest evidence-based information on how best to treat it and to live with it.

(For anyone who might be new to the Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge or to my site in general, I have episodic migraines).

I’m still quite new to this show, but I appreciate the fact that the people who run this podcast are so conscientious about only recommending treatments that have a strong scientific basis for their claims.

One of the things I’ve learned from my illness is that most of us will do anything to find relief and a very small percentage of humans out there will take advantage of that desperation to sell “treatments” that are ineffective or, even worse, might actually cause other health problems or exacerbate your current ones.

Due to this, I’m cautious about who I listen to when I seek out complementary treatments for my migraines that might work well with the new treatment regiment my family doctor put me on a few months ago. I don’t want to upset the delicate balance that can happen when you finally find a routine that helps.

This podcast is an excellent one if you also happen to have a chronic illness that causes pain or if you simply want to get a peek at how some of your friends and loved ones deal with this sort of thing.

if anyone reading this knows a lot about podcasts and would like to make some recommendations, I’d love to hear about anything that’s related to science, books, art, or history! It’s wonderful to learn more about the world.

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March 16, 2022 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Something “Lucky” That Happened to You

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Toronto Ferry at Toronto island. The CN tower and the city landscape are in the backrground. It is a semi-cloudy summer day and the lake water is nice and placid.

Toronto Island and the Toronto Ferry with the city of Toronto in the distance.

About eight years ago, my spouse and I spent the day at Toronto Island with some relatives who were visiting from out of town.

If you’ve never been to Toronto Island, know that it’s a large public park  that also has other amenities like a petting zoo, beaches, restaurants, bike and boat rentals, and a small amusement park.

It’s the quintessential place to spend a day with your entire family when the weather is nice. There is something to do there for everyone no matter your age or interests.

After spending several happy hours exploring the island, we hopped on the ferry to back to the mainland. There were between 50 and 100 other people on the ferry, including infants, disabled people, and senior citizens.

The ferries here move quickly on the water to save time, and they only slow down right before they approach the dock.

For reasons I’ve never been able to ascertain, this ferry didn’t slow down. It slammed into the dock instead, sending multiple people crashing to the floor because they were either standing up at the time or weren’t physically strong enough to remain seated. One of the people who fell was my own father!

My mother, who was a nurse back then, immediately leapt up to see if anyone needed medical assistance. We feared the worst given how hard and abruptly the ferry slammed into the pier and how many people were onboard who could be at higher risk of being seriously hurt by falling.

Miraculously, no one needed first aid. A few people who fell might have woken up with a bruise or two the next morning, but that would have been the absolutely worst of it to the best of my knowledge. No one needed my mother’s help after all.

I was very lucky that day, and so was everyone else onboard.

(Yes, I have taken the ferry once or twice since then. Don’t let this story scare you off if you haven’t tried this form of transportation yet. It’s usually perfectly safe, and you get a marvellous view of the city during the ride as well).

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March 9, 2022 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Book Setting You’d Like to Visit and Why

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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.

After thinking about it for a little bit, my answer to this week’s prompt is simple: I want to visit The Grand Canyon.

When I was about six years old, my mother read Brighty of the Grand Canyon by Marguerite Henry to me while we were driving somewhere on vacation.

It was after dark and the stars shone brightly in the sky above our car as I listened to the adventures of a brave little donkey in the Grand Canyon. I remember feeling so cozy and entertained on that trip even as my eyes began to droop a tad. Brighty was in terrible danger at times (or so it seemed to my young mind), but I was sure he’d make it through okay in the end. Mom surely wouldn’t have read it to me otherwise!

I believe this was a tale that one of her parents might have read to her when she was in elementary school, too.

At any rate, the descriptions of the Grand Canyon were so vivid and beautiful in that book that little Lydia decided she wanted to see it for herself one day. I’ve always loved nature, especially if it involves places as large and majestic as this particular portion of the world seems like it would be.

It hasn’t happened yet, but maybe it will once this pandemic ends and travelling internationally for the sheer joy of it becomes possible once again!

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March 2, 2022 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Tell Us Something About a Pet

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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 do not have a photo of the actual fish I’m going to discuss, so a stock photo must suffice.

A fish swimming in a blue sea. This happened in late spring or summer when I was a child. My family lived in a house whose backyard sloped down into the shore of a lake back then.

I was walking by the water when I noticed a fish swimming oddly close to the shore and to the surface of the water.

While I didn’t see any visible injuries on it, the poor little fish looked like it needed help. It wasn’t swimming as quickly and confidently as fish normally do. It looked wobbly and uncertain.

I built a little pen of rocks around it to protect it from any larger creatures that might hurt it. The pen was not terribly big, just tall enough to give it a safe spot in the water to rest.

Then I went to the house to see if one of my parents could help him or her.

When I returned, the fish was gone.

It’s impossible to know for sure what happened to it, but I choose to believe that moment of rest somehow helped and that it had a long and happy life after that afternoon.

I did not know it long enough to pick a name, but I bonded enough with it during the brief time we knew each other for me to remember it all of these years later.

It was a nice little fish, and I did everything I could to help it.

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February 23, 2022 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Something New You Learned Last Year

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Salted almonds in a white bowlClick here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and here to see the full list of topics for the year.

Last year I learned some new tricks that helped me avoid fainting after receiving vaccinations. My body has never liked needles, so I have a long history of swooning like an nineteenth-century heiress whenever I need a blood test or an injection.

Honestly, swooning is only amusing in historical romance novels. In real life, it’s a little frightening and embarrassing, especially when you feel like it’s out of your control.

Here are the steps I took to avoid that fate this time around.

I can’t guarantee they will work for you or that they will work every time, but they’re certainly worth a shot (so to speak) if you’re also a fainter:

  • Have a snack and something to drink beforehand. If caffeine is something you imbibe, this will work even better. If you can’t or don’t drink caffeinated beverages, consider picking something a little sugary or salty if you can eat those things.
  • Ignore any embarrassment you might feel and talk openly about your history of fainting with the medical professional. They might have additional suggestions!
  • Lie down if at all possible. If you must sit, try to have a kind friend or relative standing nearby to catch you.
  • Relax all of the muscles in your arm (or whenever you’re about to feel the poke) to help reduce the pain.
  • Breathe slowly and deeply.
  • Focus your gaze on something in the opposite direction of the needle.
  • Clench your stomach muscles as the needle enters your arm.
  • Have another snack or drink as soon as you can after the procedure.

Basically, you want to be well-hydrated, relaxed, and distracted. The snack can help keep your blood sugar and blood pressure at steady, acceptable levels.  I suspect the stomach clenching idea works because it provides yet another distraction.

There’s something about the combination of all of these things that makes it easier to avoid passing out.

 

 

 

 

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February 16, 2022 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Favourite Book Genre and Why

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A stack of about a dozen books sitting next to a white wall. All of the book’s spines are facing away from the viewer so we don’t know their topics or authors. The best I could do was to narrow my answer to this week’s prompt down to two different answers.

I’ve loved the speculative fiction genre since I was a little kid. Whether it was paranormal, science fiction, fantasy, or something similar to one of these categories, I adore stories about things that aren’t actually possible in our world.

Some of the oldest speculative fiction stories out there have predicted things like travelling to the moon or cell phones that were the stuff of dreams during their eras but are now perfectly possible and even ordinary in certain cases.

On the other side of the spectrum, I’ve grown to love nonfiction as an adult.

Biographies and memoirs give us intimate glimpses into the lives of others and often include insight into how they surmounted even the most difficult circumstances.

History class was often a little boring when I was a kid, so it was thrilling to grow up and learn about the many historical figures and events that my teachers either never talked about at all or only went into scantest details about before moving on to yet another war or royal dynasty. (Kudos to those of you who enjoy reading about royalty and/or war, of course! They’re simply not my cup of tea).

I try to keep Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge posts brief, so I’ll only mention one other type of nonfiction that excites me. It’s marvellous to learn about new scientific discoveries and advancements in any number of fields as well.

Sometimes books are written about archeological discoveries, medical advancements, or distant celestial bodies that we’re still gathering information about. Occasionally, a scientist might write an entire book about a species like eels or earthworms that we’ve recently discovered a whole bunch of fascinating information about.

I devour all of these these books with gusto. The real world can be just as filled with wonder and excitement as any imaginary one in a faraway magical land  if you pay close attention!

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February 9, 2022 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Ways to Show Someone You Love Them

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A red heart that’s been affixed to the other side of a windowpane that’s foggy and covered with rain. 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.

My comments on certain blogs do not seem to be going through for reasons I haven’t been able to ascertain. If you don’t see reciprocal comments on your site, that is why. I am doing my best each week to say hello to everyone! 

There are so many different ways to show someone you love them!

Here are a a few of my personal favourites. All of them are assuming that the person in question actually enjoys these things, so do tweak them as needed if, say, the people in your life prefer going to a basketball game to taking a hike or would be embarrassed if you praised them in front of other people!

 

  • Stop and truly listen to what they’re saying.
  • Cook or bake something you know they love.
  • Fix their broken cell phone (or leaky faucet, or squeaky door, or anything else you might know how to fix).
  • Change the oil in their vehicle for them.
  • Take them on a nature walk and picnic.
  • Compliment them on something you generally don’t think to mention.
  • Give them a big, warm hug.
  • Send them a funny Internet meme, article, or video about a topic they love.
  • Surprise them with a few uninterrupted hours of your time, and let them decide how you’ll spend those hours together.
  • Tell a heartwarming story about something wonderful they said or did.
  • Invite them out for coffee and a donut.

As an added bonus, most of these ideas are either very inexpensive or won’t cost you a single penny.

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