Tuesday, March 28, 2023

One More Year of a Blogging Challenge

I have signed up for the Blogging from A to Z Challenge once more.  I finally decided to do it to honor the memory of a fellow blogger, Rena, who passed away March 18 at the age of 53.  Rena was a friend and an inspiration to the many bloggers she befriended, and/or did work for.  She lived in South Carolina, which fit right in with my theme (actually, Exploring South Carolina and the Eastern United States.)

How could I not join the challenge after declaring my theme?

I am also trying to expand who can comment on my blog, by allowing those without a Google account to comment. (Blogger gives us only limited tools to deal with spam.)  Unfortunately, most all "anonymous" commenters are spammers, so we'll just have to see what happens.

Also, a lot of legitimate comments are going into spam, so if it takes a while for your comment to appear on my blog, I hope you'll understand.

I haven't pre written as many posts as I would have wanted, but I think I will still have a good time.

Especially because spring has come to my Southern Tier of New York home, and that always lifts my spirits.

The crocus in my front yard are finally in full bloom.

More crocus.

Still more crocus. 

In a way, crocuses and the first of anything are similar.  You take lots of pictures.  By the time the later spring flowers come along, not so much.  So today, I'll stop at three crocus pictures.

Sunday, when I took these pictures, the sun was out.  It was breezy but I even sat outside (in my coat and gloves) for a while.  Yesterday, it drizzled.  Today won't be pleasant.

So I'm thinking spring, come back!

 I hope you will join me in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge, either as a participant or as a reader/commenter.  Reading comments is the chocolate of the blogger.  If you are interested, this is where you can sign up.

And if you read and comment on my posts, I will be so happy.  I am trying, by the way, to make commenting a little easier - I've had my blog comments set to require a Google account, because this blogging platform (owned, who else, by Google) doesn't give users many tools to fight spam.  I have loosened this so you can now comment if you don't have a Google account, but if I start drowning in spam, I will have to go back to previous settings.

Wish me luck!

16 comments:

  1. ...knock on wood spam isn't the problem that it once was for me.

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  2. Lovely photos. I check my Spam list every day.

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  3. The crocus are a beautiful reminder that spring is actually coming. We had snow just 2 days ago.

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  4. You inspired me to do the challenge this year. I am looking forward to your posts.

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  5. So sorry to hear about Rena, I may have followed her at some point and recommended her site to friends. I love crocuses. Ours here in middle, northern TN started to pop up and then we got a bad freeze. I look forward to your photos.

    Going to test my blog links....
    DB McNicol - Small Delights, Simple Pleasures, and
    Significant Memories
    My Snap Memories - My life in Black & White

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  6. Oh my, my spam folder just exploded. This weekend I suddenly had over 200 comments in there, all older. Not a one of them was spam. I don't know what Blogger is doing, but it sucks right now.

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    1. I only had 21 old comments. Hope that isn't a coming attraction for me. One of the comments went back to 2009. Seriously?

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  7. So happy to be able to comment again! As usual, love the photos. Is there anything more endearing than the first crocus?

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    1. Laurie, I can't guarantee how long I'll be able to keep this setting. Please keep your fingers crossed for me.

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  8. So happy to hear you've taken it on again. You always do such a wonderful job!
    Love the flowers! I'm so glad it's spring...somewhere! I'll send you a picture of my front yard as soon as I can figure out how! ;)

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  9. Beautiful photos and a lovely way to remember and honor Rena.

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  10. Beautiful crocuses. Too bad they require cold winters to do well, something I can't provide, so I'll just enjoy yours!

    Good luck with the challenge. I don't really do challenges, being more of a laissez-faire blogger. Maybe they just require more discipline than I'm willing to accept.

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  11. Such pretty Crocus!! You have Spring!!

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  12. I wish you luck and inspiration in doing such a challenge. Indeed it's a beautiful way to honor a friend. All the best to you!

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  13. Beautiful photos! And love that you honor Rena :-)

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  14. Hi Alana - I'll be looking and occasionally commenting, as I'm not participating. Sorry to read about Rena ... with thoughts - Hilary

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Thank you for visiting! Your comments mean a lot to me, and I appreciate each one. These comments are moderated, so they may not post for several hours. If you are spam, you will find your comments in my compost heap, where they will finally serve a good purpose.