It’s been a while since I showed any goat & hen pictures, so here’s one even though I don’t have much to say about it.
All right, here’s another one:
Cloudy loves hanging out with the goats.
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A Bad Guide 
The appearance of trust and comfort in each other’s presence is especially strong in the 2nd photo. In a completely non-twee way, it makes me feel like singing the old Coke song.
Yes, that’s a wonderful photo, and unlike the mountain goat, it’s real. Thanks for sharing it and improving everyone’s day.
unlike the mountain goat, it’s real
I’m not so sure about that. I am beginning to suspect Vesla is a construct of some sort – surely nothing natural could be THAT cute in every shot.
Since this thread seems like a happy place, I will share a language link I came across yesterday at the Virtual Linguist. It was great fun to hear Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu, Bangla and Oriya all spoken with such strong North London accents, but I also learned a bit about Bangla and Oriya, and the bizarre inconsistencies of non-IPA transliterations. It’s a cute celebration of diversity, right up there with a hen choosing to hang out with goats.
http://bit.ly/utMBt
I, too, am picking this happy spot for an off-topic happy comment: we now have a cat in our family. We discovered her at a meet-the-cats event put on by an animal rescue group. This cat “Angel” was beautiful and seemed full of the right sort of spirit, but there were too many people and other animals* for her to be sufficiently at her ease for us to get to know her well enough, so my wife asked if we could possibly visit her at home — she was in foster care, so to speak, and her foster family was right there at the event, and happy to go along with this plan. The whole process was a far cry from the old-fashioned “look what followed me home”, or from the usual trip to the animal shelter with sad critters peering out through bars …
End result, she’s ours. We’ve renamed her “Nika”. She doesn’t seem to object to the change in name, and in a couple of days she has made a good start on getting used to us and our house.
I won’t think about imposing a photo on you all unless (or should I say until) we get a particularly good one. At first glance she is just one more medium-sized short-haired stripy gray cat, but she has some subtle coloration. Also, she shows some very original and expressive tail work.
* or rather not so many, but a bit elbow to elbow. (By the way, there was one very pregnant couple in the market for a cat that could be counted on to get along well their three guinea pigs. They brought along one of the latter and held it it in a cat’s face to get an idea. The woman was also very pregnant. What were they thinking?)
Thanks for the link Stuart. You’re right. That’s just such a positive, useful and optimistic project. I love the way it utilises the children’s existing skill for the benefit of their peers. They look so proud of themselves. The little Norwegian girl was funny too; she spoke in perfect Norwegian and then used the English pronunciation for a couple of words that have a similar spelling in both languages.
What’s the bet that the young Norwegian’s name would be as unindicative of her Norwegianity as her appearance is? :)
The other day, the deli counter at our local supermarket was selling small chunks of marinated pork — ‘mar svin’, as they had identified it. Marsvin is the Norwegian word for guinea pig.
She may be like my daughter: born in one country, growing up in a second, parents from a third = lots of passports.
London’s always been very cosmopolitan, but I’ll bet there aren’t many places in the world that would have so many languages spoken in one primary school.
but I’ll bet there aren’t many places in the world that would have so many languages spoken in one primary school.
Probably not. At the other end of the scale I read of one secondary school in London with 97% of its roll being of Bangladeshi origin.
but I’ll bet there aren’t many places in the world that would have so many languages spoken in one primary school.
I’ll bet there are schools in Queens, the most multinational borough of NYC, that would match or beat it.
empty, congratulations on your new cat, and Nika is an excellent name! (I don’t know why, but disyllabic names seem appropriate for cats to me; all of mine have had two-syllable names.)
Heart-warming photos and comments.
But an expat question: is “happy place” a new buzz word? I keep coming across it and feel like I’m missing some back story.
Didn’t know that about Queens.
When my wife compared the cat to a warrior princess I suggested “Xena”, but this was vetoed. “Nika” appeared when my wife did an online search for names from around the world that have something to do with beauty. Supposedly it’s Persian.
Maybe someone out there can tell me whether this is totally bogus, as results of such searches can so easily be. Not that it matters; the name fits.
Not a buzz word as far as I know.
I’ll bet there are schools in Queens, the most multinational borough of NYC, that would match or beat it.
Actually, you’ve helped me realise the number of languages represented is probably not that remarkable. In my small town of roughly 55K, I could find a primary school that could do this with at least the following – Hindi, Urdu, Panjabi, Nepali, Mandarin, Somali, Bislama, Pijin, Bangla, Fijian, Samoan, Tongan, Vietnamese and Tamizh, in addition to all 3 of our official languages. So for a metro like London, 40+ is not so astonishing after all. Still fun and informative though.
I’ll have to see how many there at Alma’s school. I don’t think it’s nearly as many, but maybe I’m wrong.
@Stuart 22 July 2009 at 1:44 am
This kind of twee?
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_twee
@ Nijma No. This kind of twee, from the OED:
Now only in depreciatory use: affectedly dainty or quaint; over-nice, over-refined, precious, mawkish.
This kind of twee,
I suppose we would say “cutesy” but it isn’t quite the same.