Over Here-in the Wednesday Hodgepodge Vol 21

Welcome to this week's edition of the Wednesday Hodgepodge, the day we link our answers for all the world to see. If you're visiting today from the A-Z blog challenge you'll find today's letter in #8. And you're very welcome to join the Hodgepodge today or any Wednesday. Answer the questions on your own blog and then link back here at the bottom of my post.

1. National Read a Road Map Day falls on April 5th. Would people say you have a good sense of direction? Do you rely on a GPS when you drive somewhere new? When was the last time you used a map?

Ha. I might win the prize for absolute worst sense of direction in the Hodgepodge today. I am directionally challenged. I think either you've got a good sense of direction or you don't and I don't. I'm not sure how I got along before the sat nav (GPS) became mainstream...probably used my head more. I had to read a map just recently but I can't remember where we were going. (see! I told you!) Actually I'm not great at the map thing either because reading a map + the motion of the car=feeling green.

I feel I must add here that after almost 27 years of marriage and literally thousands of trips with me at his side my hubs still can't believe I don't know where I am or where I'm going much of the time. He says crazy things like, "Just look where the sun is in the sky." Huh? And, "We were just there yesterday...how can you not remember which road we took?" And, "I think you might have trouble finding your way out of a paper bag." He's right. Incidentally...there is no prize in the Hodgepodge.

2. What's your favorite cookbook?

I may have a bit of a cookbook obsession so this one is really hard. Two that I use often would be Feast by Nigella Lawson and The Barefoot Contessa At Home. I also love Junior League cookbooks which are typically best of the best sorts of recipes. And my girls gave me a cookbook for Christmas from a restaurant in SC that we love called Soby's (New South Cuisine)...beautiful pictures to go with delicious recipes. Their shrimp and grits are the absolute best!

3. What painting would you like to 'walk into' and experience? Why?

"Le Jardin de Monet, les iris" by Claude Monet

Claude Monet (1900) Musee d'Orsay, Paris

Why? Well, for starters, if I were 'in' this painting I'd be standing in a beautiful garden in the lovely French village known as Giverny...Monet's Garden paintings were taken from his own garden. Mostly though, there is something about a beautiful garden that inspires and soothes and speaks. See #8.

4. What annoys you more-misspellings or mispronunciations?

I find them both a teensy bit annoying but mispronunciations are the worst. If a person mispronounces a word all I can think about is that word. Forget whatever it is they're trying to tell me...in my head I really want to correct them. We all have our issues, don't we?

5. What is something your mother or father considered important?

Living with integrity. That is also important to hubs and I.

6. Do you like or dislike schedules?

I like schedules but I love flexibility. I make a schedule for myself most days...it helps me accomplish tasks that I'd put off otherwise and it helps me feel productive. I can let go of the schedule when needed though and I have no trouble living free as a bird when we're on holiday or when someone calls and says 'Lets do lunch.'

7. Let's have some fun with National Poetry Month (that would be April)...write your own ending to this poem-"Roses are red, Violets are blue...."

Roses are Red

Violets are Blue

I am more than ready

To bid winter adieu!

If you'd like to read the history behind that little ditty you'll find it here.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

I'm using the random thought today as my A-Z blog challenge post...you can read about that here or click on the A-Z button on my sidebar. It's a lot to write two big posts in a day so I'm giving myself ( and you too) a break on Wednesdays. Or at least this Wednesday. Plus today's letter is E and it's obvious I'm going to say E is for England, right? Instead of a long wordy blurb here (oops-too late) I'm going to post a picture that makes me supremely happy-

Our English garden. There is a quote I read once that says this-

"Many things grow in a garden that were never sown there." Thomas Fuller

I don't know if Mr. Fuller meant that in the literal sense but I like to think of it another way. When I consider all the life lessons I learned while living overseas I realize that many, if not all of them, were examined and contemplated and absorbed while sitting in this beautiful garden. I am quite certain my whole family feels the same.