The yellow and green squares indicate that Wordle players guessed a correct letter or a combined correct letter and correct placement for that letter....
BITS ‘N’ PIECES
To play Wordle, players guess a predetermined five-letter word in just six tries, similar to the process in “Lingo,” a popular late ’80s game show. The yellow and green squares indicate that Wordle players guessed a correct letter or a combined correct letter and correct placement for that letter. Moreover, it’s free and doesn’t have any ads, creating the ideal user experience.
Released to the public in October, it exploded in popularity in a matter of months. So far this year, the conversation on Twitter about Wordle has experienced a daily average growth rate of 26 percent.
But, there’s an ongoing debate among Wordle players: has the New York Times ruined it? Why are there suddenly so many double-letter days? Has something changed? Or are people just losing interest?
Since Wordle caught the world’s attention, there has been a fast-flowing stream of copycats and humorous takes on the word-guessing game, based on everything from swearing (Sweardle) to choral music (Byrdle) to geography (Worldle). If you’re looking for something different, though, the Android and Apple app stores have many other word games.
SpellTower
Players make words out of adjacent letter tiles in order to clear the play space. In the puzzle mode, subsequent layers of letters are continually added until the pile reaches the top of the screen and the game ends. It’s a unique and compelling test of both your vocabulary and your spatial planning skills.
Wurdweb
This is a really fascinating take on Scrabble, which gives you a selection of words and then challenges you to place them on the board without running out of playable spaces. It sounds easy, but if you add too many words in one corner you can soon come adrift, and you have to make careful use of the premium squares.
Typeshift
This gives you a slot machine wheel of different letters, and you spin each column around with your finger until something makes sense. It also has a mode where you have to figure out several words from crossword-style clues, working with what you’re given.
How do you make use of the space around your house? Is it a cheery welcome for visitors, a showcase of the seasons and the delights of the natural world? Or, more likely, is it a place for bins and cars? The latter isn’t only bad for wildlife, it can actually impact your mental health as well as that of your neighbours.
What we have around us in our environment is critical to our wellbeing. Contact with nature has been found to improve mental health, with people who garden every day having better wellbeing. With plants, it’s a two-way nurturing process – you’re nurturing them and they’re nurturing you back.
Treats for the senses
Making a garden specifically for the senses is a way of embracing mindfulness by stealth. Choose plants that appeal to at least two senses. Choose plants whose leaves have shape and texture. Pick edible ground cover. For instance:
Pelargoniums contain essential oils in their stems, flowers and leaves and are tactile and scented, releasing oil at the slightest rub. No garden for the senses should be without lavender, rosemary and pelargoniums.
Pygmy water lilies turn a large bowl into a pond. Every garden benefits from having contained water, attracting visitors like dragonflies, frogs, and birds.
Yellow and orange flowers bring the “world’s happiest colour” into your garden. Plant large quantities of Helenium “Sahin’s Early Flowerer”, narcissi, verbascum, rudbeckia.
