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Back to life, back to reality
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After 8 Mince
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Just passing by
Thought I had better put in an appearance before poor old BTW expired out of loneliness. Things have been busy. Random dictionary delve – sombrero is Spanish for any hat, but the word has been – borrowed? misused? – to mean the wide brimmed one. Similarly, avon is assumed to mean river, in ancient languages…
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Bluenote
Heard today that the reason for naughty items being referred to as blue was down to the colour of the censor’s pencil, and also to the fact that ladies of negotiable affection wore blue robes in prison.
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Gnothe sauton
It’s been a while since we had a dictionary delve, occasioned today by my idly wondering if “global pandemic” is tautology? The dictionary in question was therefore temporarily relieved of its 21st century function as the prop for the iPad when Zooming, and duly interrogated. We know that tautology itself* comes from tauto, the same,…
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Cockles
Been a while since I had a photo that I felt was worth sharing, this is Cockleroy in West Lothian, not the highest hill in Scotland but one of the best views in eastern Central Scotland, from the Trossachs to the Pentlands, Fife, the islands of North Berwick, and…
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Straight Up
Another happy trawl through the dictionary, occasioned by the news of a new orthopaedic wing for Kirkcaldy’s hospital. Orthos is straight, genuine or right angles, leading to orthodox, orthotics and new to me, orthoepy, the study of correct pronunciation. It is also much used in chemistry and by association, geology. On the same page, ortanique,…
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Abu Dhabi
As the estate agents never tire of telling us, one of the many grand things about Fife is its coastline. We have several beautiful beaches within easy reach of our home, a fact which has made the last 9 months just that bit more bearable. In anticipation of yesterday’s Level 4 announcement we tootled off…
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Lost and Found
For some years now some of our family have been discussing the mystery of The Sicilian, a female ancestor about whom very little was known. Thanks to some new research, she has been identified as Elizabetta Calabro. She and her spouse, Andrew Walker, had a daughter named Mary, in 1815. Mary was born in Gosport,…
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July kit
From my walk today, some wild, some planted. The poppies are at the end of the Dunfermline Road out of Limekins, an infamous junction where there is no place to linger. Today I was listening to my current podcast of choice, The Moth, thank you Fiona for the shout, walking along, when I became aware…