Step on the Gas! A September Check-In #atozchallenge #roadtrip #LifeisGood

The Summer is winding down but if the activity in the blogosphere these last few days are any indication, our sun shiny days are to be continued. Having this in mind, I noticed a quick and much needed tune-up to my blog-visiting engine while participating in the Sunflowers for Tina blog hop that took place earlier this week. It was easy to take on the task of visiting 100+ bloggers since Monday September 8^th mostly due to determination and willingness to see how other people joined us in paying tribute to our late Blogging from A-to-Z Challenge Co-Host, and Co-Founder of the A-to-Z Challenge Road Trip – Tina Downey of Life is Good.

Although the task has yet to be completed, I stumbled upon a Robyn Alana Engel's Life By Chocolate blog, which reminded me of our previous detour seeking out blogs named after food. Since I started visiting blogs randomly based on my familiarity with them, it led me to many places that I haven’t visited in a long time such as Elizabeth Mueller’s blog. This experience has given me the idea that getting through mini blog hops within the A-to-Z Community has multiple benefits for the Road Tripper:

• It helps you get back into the habit of visiting blogs on a regular basis. So in other words, it’s a huge plus for those of us who pulled over on the side of the road numerous times. What a great way to play catch-up.

• It gives you the chance to measure how long – in hours or days -- it would take for you to visit a certain number of blogs. Having this knowledge can make things a little easier as you break your visiting down into small, manageable chunks.

• There are sunflowers on every blog on the list. Now I don’t know about you, but, being presented with a bright outlook for the day is enough for me to want to visit someone’s blog.

Most (if not all) blogs on the Sunflowers for Tina list have participated in the A-to-Z Challenge during one year or another. Since this means that many of these blogs did the 2014 challenge and survived to tell all about it, driving through this little memorial highway would count toward your road trip visits and also give you the chance to make some new blogging buddies. So, I’m calling out all bloggers who are on this A-to-Z Challenge Road Trip with Heather and I to step on the gas!

It is a great feeling to achieve the intimidating feat of visiting over 100 blogs in just a few days. Doing so means there is a chance that we can visit everyone by next Spring if we apply even a little bit of this diligence to the remaining portion of blogs from April’s alphabet party. It’s just a hopeful thought.

A-to-Z Challenge Co-Host Nicole Ayers takes readers behind the movie scenes at The Madlab Post. She is currently being influenced by top-notch magicians while continuing her campaign to benefit the American Red Cross. 

Sunflowers and other garden themes

You've probably been out and found a sunflower this month.  Or even just a picture.  A long, long time ago I had a little book called "The Language of Flowers" and if it didn't belong to my mother, it belonged to my aunt.  I've looked everywhere and I can't find it.  I can't find anything online about the meaning or symbolsim of the sunflower, although I have a feeling that constancy is associated with it, because the heads follow the sun. I wouldn't trust me on that, though. That's frustration for you.

My garden is another frustration.  I am fairly relaxed about where plants decide they want to grow, but I do object strongly to stinging nettles in amongst my vegetables.  Apart from using up the nutrients that my vegetables need, they sting me when I pull them out - even if they are teeny-weeny ones and I'm wearing thick gloves.  They have little hairlike structures on the undersides of their leaves and stems that deliver something like acetic acid into your skin.  Think poison ivy and you get the idea.

Peacock butterfly on buddleia

The good things about nettles: they are fantastic food plants for all sorts of butterflies and moths, including the beautiful Red Admiral and Peacock butterflies.  They also make great nitrogen rich plant feed if left to rot down in a bucket of water for a month or so.  Nettles for leafy growth, comfrey for fruiting plants.

Quite a few readers will be nodding their heads sagely at this.  I know that because I've seen a lot of lovely gardening blogs during the April A2Z, and some that blossom afterwards, especially Sue Ann Bowling's Homecoming blog.  I was blown away by the varieties of plants she grows in her garden - herbs, mints, lavenders, squashes, beans...  I do grow these... but I'm not in the Arctic Circle!  Sue's garden is an inspiration, and I must try and keep up with her!

Sue's garden (c) S A Bowling

If you're in the southern hemisphere, I expect you're just gearing up for planting your tomatoes and squashes and other plants for the summer.  Here in England I'm making last sowings of winter lettuce and carrots, hoping they get big enough to see themselves through the winter for some early spring produce.  The ones I hope to eat during winter were sown at the end of July and some slugs ate half the seedlings.  That's life in gardening.

Gardening for vegetables needs a lot of planning ahead.  I must do some more work on my theme for next year's A2Z , too - anyone know of a natural phenomenon beginning with X?

Other garden-related blogs I've enjoyed:
Marcy Howes: Creation and Compassion
Stepheny Houghtlin G is for Garden Shed
Sharon Himsl: Shells-Tales-Sails

Do you ever blog about gardening - or growing things on your balcony or windowsill?  Add your link in the comments!

Guest author Jemima Pett blogs at http://jemimapett.com about books, life, gardening and anything else that she fancies! 

Themes That Rocked - An Animal and a Recipe From Jo

Today we have foodie expert, Jo Wake, from Jo on Food, My Travels, and a Scent of Chocolate

You always feature recipes – what made you pair an animal with a recipe for the Challenge?

First of all, thank you for asking me to do this Alex.

As you say, I always feature recipes. However, the whole idea of pairing animals and birds came from my poem Albatross which I wrote many years ago plus the fact that I had read something about the albatross earlier in the year stating it’s endangerment. Had to show off my poetic talent as well of course!

What animal-recipe combination was your favorite?

I don’t think I have a favourite combination. I have been looking back at the posts. There are certain members of the wildlife world I featured which I prefer to others, but they were not necessarily paired with recipes which were favourites. I especially like the fox one which showed a video clip of a fox diving into snow which I found fascinating but I’m not that enamoured of Fettucine and Feta. Maybe the best combination would be the Ibis and Portuguese Iscas which is a liver dish which I love and I don’t like liver. The Ibis is a favourite bird too so this makes a good pairing.

Did you consider picking an animal then a recipe featuring that animal?

Not until you mentioned it, no. I think it would be difficult to do all 26 that way. I will give it some thought though for the future. There were a couple such as octopus and quail – oh and albatross – I could have done recipes for.

Where did you find some of the recipes, like the Indonesian Daging Bumbu Bali?

There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of recipes on the internet and I just went hunting for recipes beginning with the letter I needed. I generally try and choose something other people can make. I also generally try and choose different recipes. With very few exceptions, I always post recipes for things I would eat or have eaten.

About how many different countries were represented by your recipes? Which is your favorite?

Gawd, I don’t know Alex. I will have to go back and check it out. OK I found out I used recipes from 20 different countries with repeats from both the UK and the US. I also discovered in my Blog2Print books which I do for all my blogs, I don’t have the first week of April included. Serves me right for not checking them before I downloaded I guess. By the way, Japanese Pizza wasn’t from Japan. As I have already said, I love the Iscas, I am also fond of Baklava although I stay away from it these days. Diets and Diabetes.

How many of those recipes have you made? (I still want to try the Japanese Pizza.)

Prior to the A to Z I had made Iscas, Kedgeree, Sauerbraten, Gazpacho, Quinoa Pilaf and Tourtière. Unfortunately I find I cannot stand for long periods of time which does put paid to some recipes these days. The one you mention, Daging Bumbu Bali shouldn’t be too difficult though. Now you’ve reminded me ……

Which letter was the most challenging?

Actually I don’t remember finding any letter particularly challenging. Thanks to the wonderful services of search engines, it is pretty easy to find animals, birds and recipes beginning with the letter I need that day. Most of the animals and birds I was familiar with but I did come across one or two I had never heard about before. If anything I suppose X and Y, I had never heard of a Xenops or a Yaffle although Yaffle turned out to be a Green Woodpecker. Maybe our dragon friend would be familiar with the Xenops.

What theme are you considering for next year’s Challenge?

Maybe something similar but possibly featuring extinction which is a subject I feel strongly about. At the moment I am particularly concerned about the slaughter of elephants and rhinos for the tusks and horns. Elephants in particular are being slaughtered in large numbers every day, over 22,000 in 2012 for instance, I have recently seen horrific figures of the totals each day but can’t find my source. Wildlife smuggling too is a big concern of mine.

Of course I have to include a recipe. I used to make Yakisoba a lot at one time and here is a recipe for Yakisoba chicken. This is much more Japanese than the pizza recipe.

Yakisoba Chicken

½ tsp sesame oil
1 Tbs canola oil
2 tbs chile paste
2 cloves garlic chopped
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves chopped into 1“ cubes
½ cup soy sauce
1 onion sliced lengthwise into eighths
½ medium head of cabbage, coarsely chopped
2 carrots coarsely chopped
8 oz soba noodles cooked and drained

Add garlic and stir fry an additional 30 seconds. Add chicken and 1/4 cup of the soy sauce and stir fry until chicken is no longer pink, about 5 minutes. Remove mixture from pan, set aside, and keep warm.
In the emptied pan combine the onion, cabbage, and carrots. Stir-fry until cabbage begins to wilt, 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in the remaining soy sauce, cooked noodles, and the chicken mixture to pan and mix to blend. Serve and enjoy!

Sounds tasty, Jo! Thanks.


Co-host Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh is the author of Amazon Best-sellers CassaStar, CassaFire, and CassaStorm, and his blog can be found HERE

We are honoring Tina with sunflowers today– we hope everyone can join us and splash the Internet with yellow !
Sign up here - Sunflowers for Tina.

The family has also set up the Downey Education Fund, which will go toward a college fund for Tina’s two boys. You can donate via this link: