Welcome back, A -Z Bloggers and Readers!
April - and with that another A-Z season - came and went,
It was my sixth time around.
In 2015 I was talking about aspects of the life of a (part-time) working Mom, there wasn't even much hockey in the picture yet. There were, however, balancing acts, commutes, caffeine, guilty feelings and overwhelm, just to name a few.
In 2016 I was invited to a wedding at the West coast, and it came at pretty short-notice, so for a moment I worried about the challenge. The next second I decided this was genius, my theme was going to be on the go, and voilà, A is for Arrival in Los Angeles, P is for Pike Place Market and Z is for I got back to Zurich.
In 2017 I had ambitious goals of losing 30 pounds and getting into shape, and I did! From Avocado Brownies till Zumba, I just about covered everything.
I can't believe I picked this picture for the fitness theme. It's my instructor, coach and friend who in the meantime unexpectedly passed away April 30, 2019. She was a wonderful lady who will be missed so much! RIP, Vicky!
The following year, 2018, I took you on a journey, kind of a trip around the world, even. 26 cities or national parks I have visited and loved! I used S for Sydney, so I had to squeeze in San Francisco at O is for Oakland ;-)
So in 2019 I got hooked on true crime, and it was basically Chris Watt's fault. My posts varied from Alibi to Evidence and Temporary Insanity. I researched a lot for this series and did not get rewarded by many visits.
And finally, 2020 was the year I talked about my home country, Switzerland. A is for the Swiss Alps, C is for Chocolate, F is for Fondue and Y is for Yodeling.
Here's what my posts were all about:
Alps, our beautiful snow covered mountains
Bern, Switzerland's capital and the Bundeshaus where our Federal Councils do their job
Chocolate and why it's good for you
Democracy and how it works around here - you got to vote on a future post, too!
Equality in Switzerland has come a long way but still needs some work
Fondue, one of our signature cheese dishes, of course Raclette gets a mention as well, same goes for popular Swiss cheeses such as Emmentaler and how it gets its famous holes!
Grüezi is what you say to greet someone in the street. The post also covered the Gotthard region
Hofladen, the fancy version of roadside stands: self-service farmer's store
International Organizations based in Geneva, I threw in some wonderful sightseeing, too
Justice system in Switzerland, sometimes questionable sentences make you wonder
Kuhfladen, cow pie and how a hike up to the alp makes for great cheese
Lakes and rivers, we have many of them, and you get to see gorgeous pictures
Migros, one of our legendary supermarket chains
Neutral and neat, two of our prominent qualities as a nation
Opening hours and customer service, there's still potential
Potpourri of topics like Platzspitz, an open drug scene, 30 years back, pension provisions and parking
Quadrilingual - we speak four national languages in Switzerland: Swiss German (and how it's different from high German), French, Italian and Rumantsch
Rega, our air rescue service, and how it may help you one day!
Swiss, the name of our airline, its predecessor's rise and fall
Tell, the medieval national hero who shot an apple off his son's head using his
Uniformity is what I perceived in Switzerland upon returning from my jungle experience
Values such as punctuality and reliability are a given for people living and working here
Watches - you need a high quality time-piece if you want to be on time
Xenobhopic - sadly a not so great quality that won't go away in Switzerland
Yodeling - is it a fact or a myth that every Swiss person knows how to yodel?
Zermatt, the mountain resort you visit in order to see the Matterhorn.
2020 was the poorest in terms of people signing up (510 as opposed to 3,000 in earlier years and 1,500 in 2016). I wonder if there are less people who actively blog? Is it nowadays easier to be a YouTuber?
Well, I'd much rater write than talk in front of a camera.
How did my posts do?
My most successful was the one about our airline Swiss, and I probably have my airline friends to thank for it. They must have shared it.
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| Photo Credit: Patrick Wirth |
Second - and this comes as a surprise to me - was the one about our Justice system,
Second runner up was the fact that we're so precise, law-abiding and punctual: Values. Maybe people liked the street signs that says mothers need to leave their small children behind ;-)
As every year I didn't manage to pre-write all 26 posts so I would be able to dedicate my time exclusively to visiting other blogs and connecting with other bloggers.
I kind of expected the shelter-in-place situation was going to give me more screen time, but then I was still working at the office, did way more cooking and baking than usual, and even though my son is pretty independent, it's different if he doesn't ever leave the house, know what I mean?
Do you know the phenomenon of shopping around during post reveal, but ending up not going back to the ones you thought were going to be so great and interesting because oftentimes talk is cheap, and instead you end up connecting with the loveliest people and visiting some of them every day?
I'd like you to meet them as well:
Suzy at Suzy, someday somewhere. She had a charming and uplifting theme that talked about life during the pandemic crisis, and she added a song every day, and there were so many of my favourites!
Also Mikaela at Mikaeladeigh.com shared her thoughts about life in isolation, while still mourning the loss of her Dad a few years ago. Very inspiring.
Frédérique at Quilting Patch, who run a bilingual blog, French and English managed to come up with a post about quilts covering every single letter! If you're like "what? Quilts? They're just blankets!" you're in for a huge surprise - they are pieces of art!
Jade Tao Talk dedicated this A - Z to talk about plants and their essential oils: what health hand overall well-being benefits can they have?
Tizzi at Curious Daydreams presented ideas for family fun at home: fun with food, indoor adventures, jokes, sensory play, you name it!
Crackerberries was trying to take our minds off this pandemic crisis by talking about fun things like unicorns, Xavier the raccoon and a fun childhood drink called Zarey.
Ujjwal Mishra at MyWords MyWisdom helped us interpret our dream. Night dreams that is. You know, being lost, running from danger, flying, drowning - sound familiar?
I was also thrilled to meet some of my long(er) time blogging friends again this season:
Karen at Weekends in Maine talked about things that bring her bliss. I had no idea about her Christmas ornament collection, and this was not the only thing I didn't know about her!
Karen at Weekends in Maine talked about things that bring her bliss. I had no idea about her Christmas ornament collection, and this was not the only thing I didn't know about her!
Lissa at The Memory of Rain came up with miscellaneous ideas every day: fiction, art, lists of things, quizzes, quotes... Most importantly you'll be charmed by her illustrations.
Good. You are able to take different themes every year and do good presentations on them. I would like to read more about Switzerland and shall visit more posts. Thank you. You already commented on my reflection post. Hope we will be in touch more often on Twitter, FaceBook etc.
ReplyDeleteA to Z Challenge 2020 Reflection by NRao
Congrats on finishing the challenge and for the shout out. Like you, I try to write all of my posts ahead of time so I can spend the month visiting and connecting with other bloggers. I really enjoy that part of the challenge.
ReplyDeleteI loved reading your posts this year and learning more about Switzerland. It was fun to reconnect! It is so true that you tend to revisit the same bloggers during the challenge and many of those that you mentioned in your reflections post were ones that I followed throughout the challenge as well. We must share similar taste. Weekends In Maine
Regarding sign-ups this year, a few people have told me that blogging is "dying" and that YouTube is the place to be. So I guess there might be some truth to your theory. But friends of mine who have YouTube channels have told me that YouTube may have peaked and is now starting to decline as well. So who knows what the next trendy place to be will be?
ReplyDeleteIt's true, less people participated this year which is kind of odd because I assumed people have more time to blog but probably not. I think maybe not many of us have the heart to do more blogging.
ReplyDeleteI'm with your, I rather write than talk in front of a camera.
Thanks for the shout out. Congratulations on finishing the challenge.
Have a lovely day.
So many different theme! I enjoyed a lot this one, and thank you for mentioning me ;))
ReplyDelete#AtoZchallenge Reflections