Count number of lines in a txt file with Python - but exclude blank lines
<p>I wish to count the number of lines in a .txt file which looks something like this</p>

<pre><code>apple
orange
pear

hippo
donkey
</code></pre>

<p>Where there are blank lines used to separate blocks. The result I'm looking for, based on the above sample, is five (lines).</p>

<p>How can I achieve this?</p>

<p>Thank you.</p>

<p>P.S. As a bonus, it would be nice to know how many blocks/paragraphs there are. So, based on the above example, that would be two blocks.</p>
