It is always a challenge to take pictures in the rain.
I like the honeysuckle cllimbing against the tree. I am thinking of planting some along my garden fence (it already has clematis and another vine I don’t know the name of, but I also need to fill some empty spots).
Thanks. I’m a bit worried about what will happen when it gets up into the branches (it’s an apple tree). It would be lovely along a fence. I’ve found it to be more vigourous than clematis and more hardy than wisteria.
I’ve been trying to get traces of actual raindrops to show in the photographs, without any success so far. It’s funny, although I wanted them to be dark & gloomy (some of them, anyway) the pictures are darker here on the blog site than they are on my computer.
Paradise must be a splendid place if it is anything so beautiful as Norway in the summer. The green and the gloom and the colours. The creatures in their element. So very fine, Artur, from this distance.
We have a vine growing on our fence, some five-foiled type of clematis, I think. That is… it’s growing all over our western fence. in the south it extends onto the fence of my southern neighbour, and to the north on the fence of a parkish dead-end and approaching the garden of the old lady on the other side, It’s been growing into my garden and up into the nearest trees. Last week I decided to fight it back when I couldn’t find the rhubarb plant in the lower end of my garden. A plum tree just outside my garden in the dead end was all taken over. I pulled out the vines, and now it looks like autumn. Outside the fence, down the steep hillside towards the railway line, it’s all over the shrubs and 100 years of garden debris, and I can see it climbing trees far down there. I got a letter from the railroad authorities, saying that they’ll come and clear the area this summer. That would be nice, opening the view and giving evening sun in our garden later in the autumn, but frankly I don’t know if they’ll get in there. It’s a jungle.
That happens with blackberry vines too, they climb over everything and can build huge mounds if left alone. Those mounds of vegetation are very good for little birds, as few animals can follow them inside. But I don’t know what you have.
Tom, I like your thinking. Thank you for that. I do need some reassurance that I’m enjoying myself in such weather, but of course you’re right. It’s good to see you here! I hope you’re feeling better, too.
Trond, I do sympathise, but isn’t it very nice to be surrounded by the flowers? I’d guess it was Old Man’s Beard, except that has 4 petals. OMB is a wild form of clematis with a white flower and a ‘beard’ that’s left when the petals fall off. It’s said to be ‘invasive’. Your best bet might be to wait until next spring to remove it, then you won’t have to wade through all the stinging nettles and long grass to get to it.
If you really want to weigh a tree down, give it a Paul’s Himalayan Musk Rose. The smell and display will more than compensate for the need to hack it back occasionally to let the tree survive.
Oh, it’s nice. Until now I’ve encouraged it every bit of the way. I’ve especially liked how it’s been busy covering up my sins down in the hillside. But you can’t let it have the rhubarb and the plums and aim for the cherries. That’s not part of the contract.
I have blackberries too, in the sun up against my white wooden northern fence. I actually moved it there from the sunny wall of the house when we had to dig to replace the drainage around the basement ten years ago, but it’s been thriving. It’s in bloom now, and even at such a hot spot, the berries won’t be ripe until late september and through october. It’s a prolific climber, or rather sttetcher unless it’s trained, but it’s biennial, growing length the first year and fruit the next, so all branches can be cut down after they’ve carried, and they never extend beyond some five or six meters. The job is to get nd of all self-sown daughter-plants with thorns. And all the nettles hiding between the real blackberries.
All this is of course obvious to real gardening people, but to me it’s such a profound discovery that it’s worth saying.
No raspberries, no redcurrants. Very odd for a Norwegian garden. We have blackberries and blackcurrants instead. And some dark-red gooseberries that seldom get ripe but I’ve been able to make a bottle of clear ruby-red liqueur from it a couple of times.
All plants are inherited from previous owners. The cherry trees were just a couple of years old when we moved in, but the appletree may be as old as the house itself, i.e. from the 1890’s. I’m cutting it down gradually to a more manageable size, mostly because it’s getting hollow and fragile and I don’t want it to come bouncing through our bedroom window on a stormy night.
The appletree, not the house. Houses are supposed to be hollow. Never try to fix an old house by filling it with concrete. At least not without a good deal on concrete.
You guys are giving me ideas! I have never paid much attention to my garden (backyard really), and one reason is that I am usually not at home during the summer, so there has been little point in planting annual flowers. This time is one of very few summers I will be mostly at home. I have never thought of planting berry bushes before, but black currants would be nice! I have never seen them (the fruit) for sale here (or red currants which are popular in France but I like them less), although it is possible to find black currant jam. Lately I have had a craving for blackberry jam too. Blackberries and black currants – my garden probably gets enough sun to ripen them at the end of the summer.
Trond, blackberry vines don’t just propagate through seed, if the end of a vine hits the ground and stays there, it will develop roots. So in clearing blackberry vines, sometimes you have to cut or rip them up at both ends.
Rhubarb: you can transplant rhubarb. From one old plant you can divide the roots and plant them in different places.
I thought you could divide rhubarb. You really need quite a lot if you’re keen on it, like we are. We have about 5 plants, I think.
if the end of a vine hits the ground and stays there, it will develop roots.
Like roses. I think they’re close relatives. You won’t regret planting blackcurrents. Or gooseberries.
I’ve never seen cherries growing on a wall. They are so expensive (cherries, although walls too).
Houses are supposed to be hollow. Never try to fix an old house by filling it with concrete
Yes, the blackberries, raspberries, and so on belong to the genus Rubus, in the same subfamily as the roses. I knew that, but I did not know until a moment ago that the study of these is called batology.
“I’ve never seen cherries growing on a wall.” My dear wife drove off into the Midlands and returned with a fan-trained cherry. We prune it to keep it in shape. ‘S wonderful. She’s since found a delish cherry crumble recipe. Ain’t I a lucky guy?
P.S. We grow our Morello on an east-facing wall but by repute they’ll even grow on a north-facing wall. Table cherries would want a south-facing wall.
I don’t think I’d ever find any fancy stuff like that around here. The nurseries are pretty basic compared to the ones I’ve seen in England. Maybe my mother would like one, though.
The first element of a -logy word is supposed to be Greek. My son’s Greek pocket dictionary has “shrub”. No idea if that’s the original sense of the word. And no idea of the etymology.
Yes, the MW online dictionary gives the etymology as gk batos brambles – but now I see they’ve added a paywall, so forget it. But anyway, it’s of “uncertain” derivation.
batology : I had never heard of this word, but I thought the first element must be something like batos, a Greek word. If the dictionaries say it means ‘shrub’ or ‘brambles’, why not accept it? The two meanings are close enough to encompass the various members of the family (roses, etc).
Sometimes a dictionary – especially a small one – will only give one word as an equivalent for another, but many words have several meanings, and in different languages the meanings do not always correspond exactly, for instance English ‘chair’ may cover both French chaise (without arms) and fauteuil (with arms), but is less precise than either. Similarly batos might be translated by ‘shrub’ or ‘brambles’ depending on the specific context, but actually designate both equally.
The “problem” might be whether Greek batos is from PIE or not, but this is irrelevant to its meaning.
There’s no such thing as a Greek word bátos “bold”. Or if there is, I’m better at construing puns in foreign languages than my dictionary will tell me. It was about me having written bátos within angular brackets rather than in italics (being a little grumpy by not being able to write Greek letters on my phone), resulting in no bátos and the rest of my comment in bold.
But there is a strange set of homonyms. Here’s Google translate on βάτος:
substantiv
bramble βάτος
briar ρείκι, είδος βάτου, είδος πρίνου, βάτος
I have no problem with “brambles” and “shrub”, especially since I was the one who chose “shrub” as a translation of Norwegian “busk”. (But thinking of it… Maybe kratt or kjerr would have made a better Norwegian gloss for the dictionary. Those are the usual words for the sort of hostile shrubbery that comes from untamed brambles or roses.)
Yes, bush probably would be better, at least in this context. I went out of my way to avoid it because of its collective or, uh, areal meaning, but now I think that’s just the right thing.
Or maybe my premise was wrong. I see that ‘shrub’ can be used for overgrown areas too.
As well as cherries, pears and plums. Most of what we’ve waded through in this commentary. Even the humble rowantree in the corner of the garden, the one I didn’t care to mention.
Roses are my relatives or whatever Gerald Durell said.
>Marie-lucie
In Spanish, “batología” is pretty much like “datisme et pléonasme ” in French. According to our Academy, it came from the same word in Greek and means mumbling, muttering. Anyway I’ve read in an unreliable file that this word is composed of “batos” and “legos” (sic). To “batos” he says the Spanish “bato” (other word I didn’t know) that means silly or coarse man, and whose origin is uncertain. As curiosity, the new edition deletes this meaning.
I checked the TLFi, which calls it “rare”. I suppose that helps to explain why it’s not in Petit Robert. It’s based on Datis, the name of one of Darius’ generals, who had a reputation for piling on the tautology. He’s mentioned in Aristophanes’ Peace.
Thank you guys for doing the research for me: I had never heard of datisme.
Pléonasme yes, we were warned against this in school. It means a phrase in which the words have the same general meaning although they do not belong to the same class, as in a parentless orphan (adjective vs noun). According to the example in AJP’s link, datisme is not exactly the same, since it means piling up synonyms of the same kind (in the example, the synonyms are all adjectives). The famous Monty Python skit about a dead parrot would seem to be a deliberate instance of datisme since the sentences have about the same structure.
When I was teaching French I had a colleague who I think was addicted to a form of datisme. She seemed to feel obliged to rephrase her point several times to make sure everybody understood. This was fine for a teacher in front of beginning or weak students (she was very popular with some of them), but her colleagues did not need, let alone appreciate, the gratuitous avalanches of near-identical sentences and found her very tiresome – which only encouraged her to repeat even more!
a phrase in which the words have the same general meaning although they do not belong to the same class, as in a parentless orphan (adjective vs noun).
Does English have a word for this? ‘Pleonasm’ seems to mean just ‘tautology’.
Have you looked at what kind of mention he gets there?
Tautology and pleonasm are not the same thing. Pleonasm is defined as “the use of more words than those necessary to denote mere sense.”[1] A round circle. A big giant. Tautology is a repetition of the same idea in different words: A huge great big man. Say it over again once more. (Say it over. Say it again. Say it once more.) The crucial difference is that “Repeat it again” is a pleonasm, because again is inherent to “repeat”. Repeat and again do not simply mean the same thing, which means that this is not a tautological repetition of the same thing in a different word – just as tuna and fish are not the same thing.[2]
“Way, shape or form” is a pleonasm, isn’t it? Though it may be other things too.
“Ways” and “means” may actually mean different things, like the plumber’s “fixtures” and “fittings” that I mentioned somewhere recently. I’ll look the phrase up in the OED…
…well it looks like you’re right, it seems to be just tautology. I thought (considering the parliamentary committee of that name) that it might have first meant “means” in the sense of “resources of money”, but I can’t find anything to back that theory up in the OED:
ways and means
Formerly also means and ways, moyens and ways, ways and grounds: see way n.1 13 b. Cf. F. voies et moyens (? after Eng. Parliamentary use).
1. a.1.a The methods and resources which are at a person’s disposal for effecting some object.
1433 Rolls of Parlt. IV. 449/2 All the weys and menes by the whiche yei mowe enhaunce ye prises of her Merchandises. 1483 in Lett. Rich. III & Hen. VII (Rolls) I. 48 His grace is wele content that his said commissioners finde suche weyes and meanes as the said Sir Rauff shalle move frely without enpechement or trouble. 1561 T. Hoby tr. Castiglione’s Courtyer iii. (1577) O viij, After he had long attempted by all wayes and meanes to compasse hir. 1583 Whitgift Serm. (1589) C 5 b, Gregorie‥sought also waies and means secretly to murther him. 1699 G. Harvey Van. Philos. & Physick v. 40 To preserve Health‥no better ways and means can be used, than applying at certain intervals, to those cleansers or abstersives here before mentioned. 1710 Steele Tatler No. 195 ⁋6, I send with this, my Discourse of Ways and Means for encouraging Marriage. a 1737 M. Green Seeker 30 Dominion and wealth are the aim of all three, Tho’ about ways and means they may disagree. 1775 Burke Sp. Concil. Amer. 22 Mar. 56 Fortunately I am not obliged for the ways and means of this substitute to tax my own unproductive invention. 1848 Dickens Dombey liii, He has been devising ways and means all the way here of explaining himself, and has been satisfied with none. 1882 ‘Edna Lyall’ Donovan xv, It was true that there were ways and means of raising money. 1905 P. Landon Lhasa II. 136 In Tibet there are ways and means unknown to western nations.
†b.1.b rarely in sing. way and mean. Obs.
c 1400 Apol. Loll. 83 In þe þrid maner is a þing seid better þan an oþer, in þis, as it helpiþ better by sum wey and mene to þe ȝend of a þing, þan an oþer doþ. 1500–20 Dunbar Poems lxxvii. 70 The for to pleis thay socht all way and mein. [1530 Palsgr. 287/2 Wey or meane, acheison.]
2. a.2.a spec. In Legislation: methods of procuring funds or supplies for the current expenditure of the state. Also attrib.
Committee of Way and Means. (a) A committee of the whole House of Commons, which sits to receive the annual financial statement from the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and to consider the means of procuring the necessary annual supply. (b) U.S. A standing committee of the House of Representatives, to which are referred bills dealing with revenue, tariff, etc.
1644 Jrnl. Ho. Comm. III. 509/1 This Committee, or any Four of them, is to consider of all Ways and Means for raising of Monies‥and to make Report to the House. 1685 Ibid. IX. 759/1 The House then‥resolved into a Committee of the whole House, to consider of the Ways and Means to raise his Majesty’s Supply. 1695–6 Luttrell Brief Rel. IV. 16 The commons were yesterday in a committee of the whole house upon wayes and means for raising two millions. 1695 (title) An Essay upon ways and means of supplying the war. [By C. Davenant.] 1737 Gentl. Mag. VII. 654/1 When we take this Affair into our Consideration in the Committee of Ways and Means. 1738 Johnson London 245 Ye Senatorian Band, Whose Ways and Means support the sinking Land. 1767 Sterne Tr. Shandy ix. xi, The first Lord of the Treasury thinking of ways and means, could not have returned home, with a more embarrassed look. 1785 Rolliad, Prob. Odes xi. 92 Rapt in St. Stephen’s future scenes, I sit perpetual Chairman of the Ways and Means. 1798 T. Jefferson Let. to J. Madison 26 Apr., Writ. 1854 IV. 237 The Committee of Ways and Means have voted a land tax. 1824 Macaulay Prophetic Acct. Epic Poem Misc. Writ. 1860 I. 149 His Lordship‥advises him [Mr. Vansittart] to look after the ways and means, and leave questions of peace and war to his betters.
attrib. 1867 Oregon State Jrnl. 5 Jan. 2/2 The Ways and Means Committee decided to postpone an action on Mr. Boutwell’s bill. 1919 Lit. Digest 22 Mar. 21/2 Mr. Fordney, of Michigan,‥will probably be‥Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. 1973 B. J. Sims Suppl. to Sergeant on Stamp Duties (ed. 6) a55 This section and the associated Ways and Means Resolution provides powers whereby changes in stamp duty may be given effect to by means of a Budget Resolution. 1977 Time 12 Dec. 34/2 Al Ullman, the House Ways and Means chairman, has been pleading with Carter for a ‘minimalist’ rather than a ‘maximalist’ tax bill.
fig. 1699 Garth Dispensary vi. 108 No Ways and Means their Cabinet employ, But their dark Hours they waste in barren Joy.
b.2.b Pecuniary resources in general.
†to be upon ways and means, to be trying to raise money.
1738 Gentl. Mag. VIII. 41/2 So have I known a buxom lad‥taught by kind mamma at home; Who gives him many a well try’d rule, With ways and means—to act a fool. 1760 Foote Minor ii. Wks. 1799 I. 250 People that are upon ways and means, must not be nice. 1791 Smeaton Edystone L. §313 And whenever it shall appear to be necessary to renew it [sc. the gilding], I doubt not but ways and means will be found. 1869 A. Macdonald Love, Law & Theol. x. 159 The party then adjourned to McGroggy’s large room, and‥resolved themselves into a committee of ways and means. 1872 Geo. Eliot Middlem. lviii, She had not yet had any anxiety about ways and means. 1879 ‘Edna Lyall’ Won by Waiting xxi, She‥went to the nursery, to discuss ways and means with Bella’s nurse.
I hope nobody is irked by this news “… the National Bison Legacy Act was introduced in the Senate. The act would designate the American bison as the “National Mammal of the United States.” (There has never been a national mammal.)”
Anyhoo, if your weather is as grim as ours, you’ll need to be cheered up by some Scandojazz.
I’m surprised they don’t think the human is the national mammal, but anyway it’s nice that they’re concentrating on the problems they were elected to resolve, like “what is our national mammal?”.
“Since our frontier days, the bison has become a symbol of American strength and determination,” Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) said in introducing the National Bison Legacy Act.
I thought the bison was symbolic of mammals that ignored the blatant ecological threats to their own survival and as a result subsequently dwindled to near extinction.
Apparently they choze the roze in the 1980s. I find that a total copout. Why not something more exclusively north American? The bird is the bald eagle. I like the idea of the Senate choosing the National Worm, I’d still go for Richard M. Nixon.
>Grumbly Stu
Bird: Bald Eagle.
Worm: Damn it! I thought in “eisenia foetida”, also known here as “lombriz de California” but I’ve just read them are from Europa! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisenia_fetida
I start to be disappointed with California: Borges, a Spanish company, sells walnuts of California that grows, for example, here in Badajoz (more than 1000 ha).
>Grumbly Stu
They are simultaneous hermaphrodites* as most of snails. This reproduction is good for genetic diversity. If I were hermaphrodite I’d rather belong to this type; at least you can meet people. Only some animals have “autofertilization”**, like taenia, somehow fortunately for us. In fact, besides “tenia”, Spanish has the name “solitaria” (solitary) to this parasite.
* From Hermes and Aphrodite, like everybody know. But I wonder, speaking of reproduction, what is the origin of ant bear.
** I don’t like to murder the language, but…: -)
That surfing one is great. You can see how much they’re enjoying it. I think our goats are too old to try sports on the lake, but I may take them down there just to make sure.
The other one is just silly, with a really hopeless fake photo. I don’t see the point.
The sun shone here yesterday too, but we still managed a couple of quick downpours.
I didn’t know Gat was goat, no. I suppose it’s something like ‘Geitvik’, which would be the Norwegian equivalent. I recently learnt from P.G. Wodehouse that Gatwick used to be a racecourse.
dearie, it’s a bit muggy here but nowhere near 86F. It’s Achnagart vs Gatwick – fair’s fair, and all that (always assuming Achnagart isn’t just the Scottish for ‘airport’).
It’s Gaelic for field of the ‘gart’, whatsoever that may be. I suppose it’s too much to hope that it means goat.
Where I come from there are v few Gaelic place names – there must have been a ruling Gaelic aristocracy at some time, but the minor landowners, tenants and others presumably largely spoke Cumbric or Anglo-Saxon or Danish in the era when place names were still being coined.
dearie meant Achnagart is Gaelic, and it would be a coincidence if ‘gart’ also meant goat.
When people say Anglo-Saxon, it’s pretty vague isn’t it? You’ve got your Angles from Denmark and your Saxons from wherever in northern Germany. It’s like saying Franco-Roman or Judeo-Christian: there are things in common but it’s not one group. Just saying – not in connection with anything, but because I’m supposed to be working outside and it’s raining…
I looked up Achnagart on a map. I’m sure I drove through that valley once long ago, near the range of peaks called the Five Sisters: a particularly lovely bleak-looking bit of the Highlands.
I think that when people speak of the Anglo-Saxon language they mean something definite: the same as Old English?
Wasn’t it the Jutes, not the Angles, who came from (what is now) Denmark?
It’s neither hot nor raining here. Beautiful cool bright summer day. I should be doing some work, too. Funny you should mention it.
Asa did a great bit of trash-day scavenging yesterday.
The element -wick meaning farm in Anglo-Saxon? I didn’t know that. I would have taken it to be a — possibly degrading — description of a minor marketplace.
Engen iim Hegau ist ein schöner Stadt, by the way, so thanks for the tip. No teeshirts or mugs saying Wunderschöne Engen, though. Really lacking in tacky souvenirs, the Germans.
Oh, I don’t know. Wick may well have meant “farm” without anyone telling me! And I meant to suggest that the compound goat-wick was disparaging, not wick alone.
“Anglo-Saxon” was apparently an invention of academics in the C19. Pretty handy, given that no-one really understands who was Saxon and who was Angle, and why their neighbours referred to them all as Saxons and yet the country became Angle-land.
Trond, too bad about the teeshirts, but we could always have some screenprinted. I’m glad you’ve visited the place. Now I suppose I’ll have to visit a Crown colony. I wonder if there are any left.
They taught us in school that the Germanic people who overran much of that island were Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. The place ended up getting called England, after the Angles. (Could have been called New Saxony or New Jutland or something else, but luck went the way of the Angles.) Many parts of the place got named Wessex and so on after the Saxons, so in that regard the luck went the way of the Saxons. In the word Anglo-Saxon they both got lucky, and the poor Jutes were left out
But after some hasty googling I now believe that the “Anglo-” in Anglo-Saxon refer not directly to the Angles but rather to England (which happens to be named after the Angles, both in English and in Latin, but that’s not the point), as in such expressions as “Anglo-Indian”.
Whoever coined “Anglo-Saxon” was making up a word for “the Saxons of England”, not “the Angles and the Saxons”.
The word “Anglo-Saxon” is not meant to make you think of the Angles, any more than the word “Anglo-Indian” or the phrase “Anglo-Russian War” is.
“They taught us in school that the Germanic people who overran much of that island were Angles, Saxons, and Jutes”: so said Bede. But he was writing long after the events. Historians dislike saying “I don’t know” but it’s a pretty wise thing to say about a Dark Age.
P.S. WKPD tells me that ‘Anglo-Saxon’ is much older than C19, so I really should have said that the expression was popularised by C19 academics.
Motorcyclist dies after bird flies into him at 60mph
I love this: the Mail requires O-level Physics of its journalists. I suppose next they’ll have Car destroyed by 60mph pedestrians.
That’s good to know that ‘Anglo-Saxon’ is like ‘Anglo-French’, and nothing to do with Angles. It’s put my mind at rest, in which state it will continue until it is compelled to change by external forces acting on it.
Tesi, Asa, and I went for a bicycle ride on Wednesday. I saw a foolish grey squirrel come within inches of being run over by a bike (not one of ours), and something which I took for a bat navigated deftly around first Tesi then me. No pheasants, though.
Squirrels, bats & birds with their jerky movements live as if in a speeded-up movie. I’m sure instants of time appear much more spread out if you’re a squirrel; so although it may seem like coming within inches to us, to a squirrel – or to the birds that dodge and dive in front of my car tyre – it’s long enough. Elephants are a different matter.
The bat seemed to know what it was doing. The squirrel not so much.
It appeared at the edge of the bike path and paused in alarm when it saw something coming. I believe the bicycle cautiously slowed a bit, to give the squirrel time to think. At the last possible moment the squirrel darted across in front of it. Maybe this was a thrill-seeking squirrel. Or maybe you are right that it was not such a close call from the squirrel’s point of view. My own belief is that the squirrel didn’t grasp some key elements of the situation.
I expect that Grumbly will take me to task for anthropomorphizing the squirrel. And the bicycle, too.
I’ve noticed that Topsy the dog is quite a slow thinker sometimes (does she want to go outside or not?), but still has extraordinarily quick reactions compared to me.
My only objection is to anthropomorphising* God as a white-haired, white-bearded, white man. Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel depiction looks so European that I confuse it with Father Christmas.
*(incidentally, it occurred to me to ask during the five minutes it took me to type that verb, why are there no pro-verbs, only pronouns?)
The rains returned at lunchtime. At least the sunny spell gave us (i) two ripe tomatoes (grown in the back porch), (ii) a bumper crop of alpine strawberries (grown in the gravel between paving slabs), and (iii) several entertaining visits from a hen pheasant.
Did you plant the alpine strawberries? They seem to be pointed like raspberries, not quite like the tiny wild ones we have in our garden (they’ve spread tremendously this year).
We planted seeds in the garden years ago and since then they’ve sought out their preferred environments. I suppose ‘between paving slabs’ is their approximation to hanging onto an alpine rock.
I reckon they like the rain. Slugs don’t seem to want to eat them. Incidentally, I throw all our slugs on the grass and they’re doing a remarkable job keeping it short. They also weed between the cobbles – hard little workers.
Crown, those are indeed very pointed strawberries in the pictures that you linked to, but the raspberries I have known have not been particularly pointed.
We used to have wild strawberries (very small–hardly worth eating–and not pointy) near our summer place. i wonder what happened to them. I think some were obliterated during a construction project and others were overwhelmed by more thug-like wild plants. Or maybe they are just hard to see among the prickly thugs: I should look some time.
Language, you & Mrs Hat could have a couple of those (one to bounce, one to be bounced off). Think about it. Fun for you, fun for them, fun for the grandson. They’re just down the road, in Maine…
A Bad Guide
It is always a challenge to take pictures in the rain.
I like the honeysuckle cllimbing against the tree. I am thinking of planting some along my garden fence (it already has clematis and another vine I don’t know the name of, but I also need to fill some empty spots).
Thanks. I’m a bit worried about what will happen when it gets up into the branches (it’s an apple tree). It would be lovely along a fence. I’ve found it to be more vigourous than clematis and more hardy than wisteria.
I’ve been trying to get traces of actual raindrops to show in the photographs, without any success so far. It’s funny, although I wanted them to be dark & gloomy (some of them, anyway) the pictures are darker here on the blog site than they are on my computer.
Paradise must be a splendid place if it is anything so beautiful as Norway in the summer. The green and the gloom and the colours. The creatures in their element. So very fine, Artur, from this distance.
We have a vine growing on our fence, some five-foiled type of clematis, I think. That is… it’s growing all over our western fence. in the south it extends onto the fence of my southern neighbour, and to the north on the fence of a parkish dead-end and approaching the garden of the old lady on the other side, It’s been growing into my garden and up into the nearest trees. Last week I decided to fight it back when I couldn’t find the rhubarb plant in the lower end of my garden. A plum tree just outside my garden in the dead end was all taken over. I pulled out the vines, and now it looks like autumn. Outside the fence, down the steep hillside towards the railway line, it’s all over the shrubs and 100 years of garden debris, and I can see it climbing trees far down there. I got a letter from the railroad authorities, saying that they’ll come and clear the area this summer. That would be nice, opening the view and giving evening sun in our garden later in the autumn, but frankly I don’t know if they’ll get in there. It’s a jungle.
That happens with blackberry vines too, they climb over everything and can build huge mounds if left alone. Those mounds of vegetation are very good for little birds, as few animals can follow them inside. But I don’t know what you have.
Tom, I like your thinking. Thank you for that. I do need some reassurance that I’m enjoying myself in such weather, but of course you’re right. It’s good to see you here! I hope you’re feeling better, too.
m-l, yes! Hedge sparrows.
Trond, I do sympathise, but isn’t it very nice to be surrounded by the flowers? I’d guess it was Old Man’s Beard, except that has 4 petals. OMB is a wild form of clematis with a white flower and a ‘beard’ that’s left when the petals fall off. It’s said to be ‘invasive’. Your best bet might be to wait until next spring to remove it, then you won’t have to wade through all the stinging nettles and long grass to get to it.
If you really want to weigh a tree down, give it a Paul’s Himalayan Musk Rose. The smell and display will more than compensate for the need to hack it back occasionally to let the tree survive.
I’ve always wanted one of those. I’ve never seen it here, though you’d think it ought to thrive.
Oh, it’s nice. Until now I’ve encouraged it every bit of the way. I’ve especially liked how it’s been busy covering up my sins down in the hillside. But you can’t let it have the rhubarb and the plums and aim for the cherries. That’s not part of the contract.
I have blackberries too, in the sun up against my white wooden northern fence. I actually moved it there from the sunny wall of the house when we had to dig to replace the drainage around the basement ten years ago, but it’s been thriving. It’s in bloom now, and even at such a hot spot, the berries won’t be ripe until late september and through october. It’s a prolific climber, or rather sttetcher unless it’s trained, but it’s biennial, growing length the first year and fruit the next, so all branches can be cut down after they’ve carried, and they never extend beyond some five or six meters. The job is to get nd of all self-sown daughter-plants with thorns. And all the nettles hiding between the real blackberries.
All this is of course obvious to real gardening people, but to me it’s such a profound discovery that it’s worth saying.
By contract the cherries are for the thrushes. Except that all the fruittrees are also claimed by carpenter ants for their domesticated aphids.
You can always move the rhubarb, I think it grows nearly anywhere.
The birds take all our cherries too.
Don’t you have raspberries? I thought all Norwegians had them. They can really get out of hand.
We grow our cherries on a wall so that we can net them.
No raspberries, no redcurrants. Very odd for a Norwegian garden. We have blackberries and blackcurrants instead. And some dark-red gooseberries that seldom get ripe but I’ve been able to make a bottle of clear ruby-red liqueur from it a couple of times.
All plants are inherited from previous owners. The cherry trees were just a couple of years old when we moved in, but the appletree may be as old as the house itself, i.e. from the 1890’s. I’m cutting it down gradually to a more manageable size, mostly because it’s getting hollow and fragile and I don’t want it to come bouncing through our bedroom window on a stormy night.
The appletree, not the house. Houses are supposed to be hollow. Never try to fix an old house by filling it with concrete. At least not without a good deal on concrete.
You guys are giving me ideas! I have never paid much attention to my garden (backyard really), and one reason is that I am usually not at home during the summer, so there has been little point in planting annual flowers. This time is one of very few summers I will be mostly at home. I have never thought of planting berry bushes before, but black currants would be nice! I have never seen them (the fruit) for sale here (or red currants which are popular in France but I like them less), although it is possible to find black currant jam. Lately I have had a craving for blackberry jam too. Blackberries and black currants – my garden probably gets enough sun to ripen them at the end of the summer.
Trond, blackberry vines don’t just propagate through seed, if the end of a vine hits the ground and stays there, it will develop roots. So in clearing blackberry vines, sometimes you have to cut or rip them up at both ends.
Rhubarb: you can transplant rhubarb. From one old plant you can divide the roots and plant them in different places.
I thought you could divide rhubarb. You really need quite a lot if you’re keen on it, like we are. We have about 5 plants, I think.
if the end of a vine hits the ground and stays there, it will develop roots.
Like roses. I think they’re close relatives. You won’t regret planting blackcurrents. Or gooseberries.
I’ve never seen cherries growing on a wall. They are so expensive (cherries, although walls too).
Houses are supposed to be hollow. Never try to fix an old house by filling it with concrete
Tell that to Rachel Whiteread.
Yes, the blackberries, raspberries, and so on belong to the genus Rubus, in the same subfamily as the roses. I knew that, but I did not know until a moment ago that the study of these is called batology.
Wow. Freaky. Perhaps m-l has a Latin explanation for batology.
“I’ve never seen cherries growing on a wall.” My dear wife drove off into the Midlands and returned with a fan-trained cherry. We prune it to keep it in shape. ‘S wonderful. She’s since found a delish cherry crumble recipe. Ain’t I a lucky guy?
P.S. We grow our Morello on an east-facing wall but by repute they’ll even grow on a north-facing wall. Table cherries would want a south-facing wall.
I don’t think I’d ever find any fancy stuff like that around here. The nurseries are pretty basic compared to the ones I’ve seen in England. Maybe my mother would like one, though.
Perhaps there’s a book that’ll teach you to do fan-training. Or, even better, teach your daughter to do fan-training?
The first element of a -logy word is supposed to be Greek. My son’s Greek pocket dictionary has “shrub”. No idea if that’s the original sense of the word. And no idea of the etymology.
And no idea why my ‘bátos’ was interpreted as ‘bold’.
It did have a b, in triangles, at either end.
Yes, the MW online dictionary gives the etymology as gk batos brambles – but now I see they’ve added a paywall, so forget it. But anyway, it’s of “uncertain” derivation.
I’m not starting fan dancing at my time of life.
Too bad. I’m a fan. I could always take up dancing.
batology : I had never heard of this word, but I thought the first element must be something like batos, a Greek word. If the dictionaries say it means ‘shrub’ or ‘brambles’, why not accept it? The two meanings are close enough to encompass the various members of the family (roses, etc).
Sometimes a dictionary – especially a small one – will only give one word as an equivalent for another, but many words have several meanings, and in different languages the meanings do not always correspond exactly, for instance English ‘chair’ may cover both French chaise (without arms) and fauteuil (with arms), but is less precise than either. Similarly batos might be translated by ‘shrub’ or ‘brambles’ depending on the specific context, but actually designate both equally.
The “problem” might be whether Greek batos is from PIE or not, but this is irrelevant to its meaning.
Trond, bátos ‘bold’ may be an unrelated homonym, perhaps more commonly attested.
There’s no such thing as a Greek word bátos “bold”. Or if there is, I’m better at construing puns in foreign languages than my dictionary will tell me. It was about me having written bátos within angular brackets rather than in italics (being a little grumpy by not being able to write Greek letters on my phone), resulting in no bátos and the rest of my comment in bold.
But there is a strange set of homonyms. Here’s Google translate on βάτος:
substantiv
bramble βάτος
briar ρείκι, είδος βάτου, είδος πρίνου, βάτος
adjektiv
negotiable διαπραγματεύσιμος, μεταβιβάσιμος, εμπορεύσιμος, βάτος
I have no problem with “brambles” and “shrub”, especially since I was the one who chose “shrub” as a translation of Norwegian “busk”. (But thinking of it… Maybe kratt or kjerr would have made a better Norwegian gloss for the dictionary. Those are the usual words for the sort of hostile shrubbery that comes from untamed brambles or roses.)
Well, so there is another βάτος , which does not mean ‘bold’ but is still an adjective!
Perhaps ‘bush’ would be the right translation for busk? it is sort of in between ‘shrub’ and ‘brambles’.
Yes, bush probably would be better, at least in this context. I went out of my way to avoid it because of its collective or, uh, areal meaning, but now I think that’s just the right thing.
Or maybe my premise was wrong. I see that ‘shrub’ can be used for overgrown areas too.
brush, bracken, bramble, brier, broom, … fine words
In half of Great Britain, “brambles” are not only the shrub but also its fruit.
Yes, dearie! I’d forgotten that! Bramble jelly, and so on. Thanks.
Bramble jam.
Apple and bramble crumble. mmmmmmm!
Apples are in the family Rosaceae, too, but not in the same subfamily.
Yes, my mother used to make that.
All batologists discuss Rosaceae, but not all Rosaceae are discussed by batologists – or so I’ve been led to believe.
As well as cherries, pears and plums. Most of what we’ve waded through in this commentary. Even the humble rowantree in the corner of the garden, the one I didn’t care to mention.
Roses are my relatives or whatever Gerald Durell said.
Ah, Trond, that reminds me.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0140509194/ref=asc_df_01405091948696239?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&tag=hydra0b-21&linkCode=asn&creative=22206&creativeASIN=0140509194&hvpos=1o1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=2101736829120217&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=
>Marie-lucie
In Spanish, “batología” is pretty much like “datisme et pléonasme ” in French. According to our Academy, it came from the same word in Greek and means mumbling, muttering. Anyway I’ve read in an unreliable file that this word is composed of “batos” and “legos” (sic). To “batos” he says the Spanish “bato” (other word I didn’t know) that means silly or coarse man, and whose origin is uncertain. As curiosity, the new edition deletes this meaning.
Jesús: I can’t find datisme in Robert. Is it a French word ?
Yes, it seems to be. I think it means a repetitive way of talking, saying the same thing using different words, over and over, tautologically.
I checked the TLFi, which calls it “rare”. I suppose that helps to explain why it’s not in Petit Robert. It’s based on Datis, the name of one of Darius’ generals, who had a reputation for piling on the tautology. He’s mentioned in Aristophanes’ Peace.
>Grumbly Stu
I’m happy, content, pleased with the file given by A. J. P. Crown for you.
Thank you guys for doing the research for me: I had never heard of datisme.
Pléonasme yes, we were warned against this in school. It means a phrase in which the words have the same general meaning although they do not belong to the same class, as in a parentless orphan (adjective vs noun). According to the example in AJP’s link, datisme is not exactly the same, since it means piling up synonyms of the same kind (in the example, the synonyms are all adjectives). The famous Monty Python skit about a dead parrot would seem to be a deliberate instance of datisme since the sentences have about the same structure.
When I was teaching French I had a colleague who I think was addicted to a form of datisme. She seemed to feel obliged to rephrase her point several times to make sure everybody understood. This was fine for a teacher in front of beginning or weak students (she was very popular with some of them), but her colleagues did not need, let alone appreciate, the gratuitous avalanches of near-identical sentences and found her very tiresome – which only encouraged her to repeat even more!
It’s based on Datis, the name of one of Darius’ generals, who had a reputation for piling on the tautology. He’s mentioned in Aristophanes’ Peace.
Have you looked at what kind of mention he gets there?
a phrase in which the words have the same general meaning although they do not belong to the same class, as in a parentless orphan (adjective vs noun).
Does English have a word for this? ‘Pleonasm’ seems to mean just ‘tautology’.
Have you looked at what kind of mention he gets there?
Tautology makes you go blind.
From wikipedia under “Tautology”:
Tautology and pleonasm are not the same thing. Pleonasm is defined as “the use of more words than those necessary to denote mere sense.”[1] A round circle. A big giant. Tautology is a repetition of the same idea in different words: A huge great big man. Say it over again once more. (Say it over. Say it again. Say it once more.) The crucial difference is that “Repeat it again” is a pleonasm, because again is inherent to “repeat”. Repeat and again do not simply mean the same thing, which means that this is not a tautological repetition of the same thing in a different word – just as tuna and fish are not the same thing.[2]
Thanks for finding that, m-l.
What’s the name for all those favourite doublets: “ways and means” and so forth?
Or even the unspeakable, but all too often spoken, triplet “in any way, shape or form”?
“Way, shape or form” is a pleonasm, isn’t it? Though it may be other things too.
“Ways” and “means” may actually mean different things, like the plumber’s “fixtures” and “fittings” that I mentioned somewhere recently. I’ll look the phrase up in the OED…
…well it looks like you’re right, it seems to be just tautology. I thought (considering the parliamentary committee of that name) that it might have first meant “means” in the sense of “resources of money”, but I can’t find anything to back that theory up in the OED:
ways and means
Formerly also means and ways, moyens and ways, ways and grounds: see way n.1 13 b. Cf. F. voies et moyens (? after Eng. Parliamentary use).
1. a.1.a The methods and resources which are at a person’s disposal for effecting some object.
1433 Rolls of Parlt. IV. 449/2 All the weys and menes by the whiche yei mowe enhaunce ye prises of her Merchandises. 1483 in Lett. Rich. III & Hen. VII (Rolls) I. 48 His grace is wele content that his said commissioners finde suche weyes and meanes as the said Sir Rauff shalle move frely without enpechement or trouble. 1561 T. Hoby tr. Castiglione’s Courtyer iii. (1577) O viij, After he had long attempted by all wayes and meanes to compasse hir. 1583 Whitgift Serm. (1589) C 5 b, Gregorie‥sought also waies and means secretly to murther him. 1699 G. Harvey Van. Philos. & Physick v. 40 To preserve Health‥no better ways and means can be used, than applying at certain intervals, to those cleansers or abstersives here before mentioned. 1710 Steele Tatler No. 195 ⁋6, I send with this, my Discourse of Ways and Means for encouraging Marriage. a 1737 M. Green Seeker 30 Dominion and wealth are the aim of all three, Tho’ about ways and means they may disagree. 1775 Burke Sp. Concil. Amer. 22 Mar. 56 Fortunately I am not obliged for the ways and means of this substitute to tax my own unproductive invention. 1848 Dickens Dombey liii, He has been devising ways and means all the way here of explaining himself, and has been satisfied with none. 1882 ‘Edna Lyall’ Donovan xv, It was true that there were ways and means of raising money. 1905 P. Landon Lhasa II. 136 In Tibet there are ways and means unknown to western nations.
†b.1.b rarely in sing. way and mean. Obs.
c 1400 Apol. Loll. 83 In þe þrid maner is a þing seid better þan an oþer, in þis, as it helpiþ better by sum wey and mene to þe ȝend of a þing, þan an oþer doþ. 1500–20 Dunbar Poems lxxvii. 70 The for to pleis thay socht all way and mein. [1530 Palsgr. 287/2 Wey or meane, acheison.]
2. a.2.a spec. In Legislation: methods of procuring funds or supplies for the current expenditure of the state. Also attrib.
Committee of Way and Means. (a) A committee of the whole House of Commons, which sits to receive the annual financial statement from the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and to consider the means of procuring the necessary annual supply. (b) U.S. A standing committee of the House of Representatives, to which are referred bills dealing with revenue, tariff, etc.
1644 Jrnl. Ho. Comm. III. 509/1 This Committee, or any Four of them, is to consider of all Ways and Means for raising of Monies‥and to make Report to the House. 1685 Ibid. IX. 759/1 The House then‥resolved into a Committee of the whole House, to consider of the Ways and Means to raise his Majesty’s Supply. 1695–6 Luttrell Brief Rel. IV. 16 The commons were yesterday in a committee of the whole house upon wayes and means for raising two millions. 1695 (title) An Essay upon ways and means of supplying the war. [By C. Davenant.] 1737 Gentl. Mag. VII. 654/1 When we take this Affair into our Consideration in the Committee of Ways and Means. 1738 Johnson London 245 Ye Senatorian Band, Whose Ways and Means support the sinking Land. 1767 Sterne Tr. Shandy ix. xi, The first Lord of the Treasury thinking of ways and means, could not have returned home, with a more embarrassed look. 1785 Rolliad, Prob. Odes xi. 92 Rapt in St. Stephen’s future scenes, I sit perpetual Chairman of the Ways and Means. 1798 T. Jefferson Let. to J. Madison 26 Apr., Writ. 1854 IV. 237 The Committee of Ways and Means have voted a land tax. 1824 Macaulay Prophetic Acct. Epic Poem Misc. Writ. 1860 I. 149 His Lordship‥advises him [Mr. Vansittart] to look after the ways and means, and leave questions of peace and war to his betters.
attrib. 1867 Oregon State Jrnl. 5 Jan. 2/2 The Ways and Means Committee decided to postpone an action on Mr. Boutwell’s bill. 1919 Lit. Digest 22 Mar. 21/2 Mr. Fordney, of Michigan,‥will probably be‥Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. 1973 B. J. Sims Suppl. to Sergeant on Stamp Duties (ed. 6) a55 This section and the associated Ways and Means Resolution provides powers whereby changes in stamp duty may be given effect to by means of a Budget Resolution. 1977 Time 12 Dec. 34/2 Al Ullman, the House Ways and Means chairman, has been pleading with Carter for a ‘minimalist’ rather than a ‘maximalist’ tax bill.
fig. 1699 Garth Dispensary vi. 108 No Ways and Means their Cabinet employ, But their dark Hours they waste in barren Joy.
b.2.b Pecuniary resources in general.
†to be upon ways and means, to be trying to raise money.
1738 Gentl. Mag. VIII. 41/2 So have I known a buxom lad‥taught by kind mamma at home; Who gives him many a well try’d rule, With ways and means—to act a fool. 1760 Foote Minor ii. Wks. 1799 I. 250 People that are upon ways and means, must not be nice. 1791 Smeaton Edystone L. §313 And whenever it shall appear to be necessary to renew it [sc. the gilding], I doubt not but ways and means will be found. 1869 A. Macdonald Love, Law & Theol. x. 159 The party then adjourned to McGroggy’s large room, and‥resolved themselves into a committee of ways and means. 1872 Geo. Eliot Middlem. lviii, She had not yet had any anxiety about ways and means. 1879 ‘Edna Lyall’ Won by Waiting xxi, She‥went to the nursery, to discuss ways and means with Bella’s nurse.
I hope nobody is irked by this news “… the National Bison Legacy Act was introduced in the Senate. The act would designate the American bison as the “National Mammal of the United States.” (There has never been a national mammal.)”
Anyhoo, if your weather is as grim as ours, you’ll need to be cheered up by some Scandojazz.
I’m surprised they don’t think the human is the national mammal, but anyway it’s nice that they’re concentrating on the problems they were elected to resolve, like “what is our national mammal?”.
National animal:
I thought the bison was symbolic of mammals that ignored the blatant ecological threats to their own survival and as a result subsequently dwindled to near extinction.
Is there a difference between null and void?
Tony Blair’s head wasn’t occupied by a null.
Empty words. It’s a pleonasm. Either that, or it should be ‘null and therefore voided’.
Avoid a void!
Pascal avoided a void when he declared null and void the horror vacui.
Is there an American national flower, bird, or worm ?
Apparently they choze the roze in the 1980s. I find that a total copout. Why not something more exclusively north American? The bird is the bald eagle. I like the idea of the Senate choosing the National Worm, I’d still go for Richard M. Nixon.
>Grumbly Stu
Bird: Bald Eagle.
Worm: Damn it! I thought in “eisenia foetida”, also known here as “lombriz de California” but I’ve just read them are from Europa!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisenia_fetida
I start to be disappointed with California: Borges, a Spanish company, sells walnuts of California that grows, for example, here in Badajoz (more than 1000 ha).
>Grumbly Stu
Well, also Schwarzenegger is from Austria. I give up.
As with other earthworm species, Eisenia fetida is hermaphroditic. However, two worms are still required for reproduction.
!!??
>Grumbly Stu
They are simultaneous hermaphrodites* as most of snails. This reproduction is good for genetic diversity. If I were hermaphrodite I’d rather belong to this type; at least you can meet people. Only some animals have “autofertilization”**, like taenia, somehow fortunately for us. In fact, besides “tenia”, Spanish has the name “solitaria” (solitary) to this parasite.
* From Hermes and Aphrodite, like everybody know. But I wonder, speaking of reproduction, what is the origin of ant bear.
** I don’t like to murder the language, but…: -)
Greater goaty wetness: h/t Naked Capitalism.
NC does it again.
http://gawker.com/5927929/goat-man-hides-among-real-goats-in-utah
My God, it didn’t rain yesterday. The sun briefly shone.
That surfing one is great. You can see how much they’re enjoying it. I think our goats are too old to try sports on the lake, but I may take them down there just to make sure.
The other one is just silly, with a really hopeless fake photo. I don’t see the point.
The sun shone here yesterday too, but we still managed a couple of quick downpours.
“It is officially the hottest day of the year so far after the mercury rose close to 30C (86F).
A temperature of 29.7C (85.46F) was recorded in Charlwood, Surrey – close to Gatwick Airport – this afternoon.
It beats the previous highest temperature of 29.3C (84.74) which was recorded in Achnagart, in the Highlands, on May 25.”
Did you know that the “Gat-” in “Gatwick” is a goat?
Observe the geographical precision of reporting in a London paper: “the Highlands” versus “close to Gatwick”.
I didn’t know Gat was goat, no. I suppose it’s something like ‘Geitvik’, which would be the Norwegian equivalent. I recently learnt from P.G. Wodehouse that Gatwick used to be a racecourse.
dearie, it’s a bit muggy here but nowhere near 86F. It’s Achnagart vs Gatwick – fair’s fair, and all that (always assuming Achnagart isn’t just the Scottish for ‘airport’).
It’s Gaelic for field of the ‘gart’, whatsoever that may be. I suppose it’s too much to hope that it means goat.
Where I come from there are v few Gaelic place names – there must have been a ruling Gaelic aristocracy at some time, but the minor landowners, tenants and others presumably largely spoke Cumbric or Anglo-Saxon or Danish in the era when place names were still being coined.
The WiPe article on the airport says Anglo-Saxon (not Gaelic) for goat-farm
dearie meant Achnagart is Gaelic, and it would be a coincidence if ‘gart’ also meant goat.
When people say Anglo-Saxon, it’s pretty vague isn’t it? You’ve got your Angles from Denmark and your Saxons from wherever in northern Germany. It’s like saying Franco-Roman or Judeo-Christian: there are things in common but it’s not one group. Just saying – not in connection with anything, but because I’m supposed to be working outside and it’s raining…
Oh, I see.
I looked up Achnagart on a map. I’m sure I drove through that valley once long ago, near the range of peaks called the Five Sisters: a particularly lovely bleak-looking bit of the Highlands.
I think that when people speak of the Anglo-Saxon language they mean something definite: the same as Old English?
Wasn’t it the Jutes, not the Angles, who came from (what is now) Denmark?
It’s neither hot nor raining here. Beautiful cool bright summer day. I should be doing some work, too. Funny you should mention it.
Asa did a great bit of trash-day scavenging yesterday.
The element -wick meaning farm in Anglo-Saxon? I didn’t know that. I would have taken it to be a — possibly degrading — description of a minor marketplace.
Engen iim Hegau ist ein schöner Stadt, by the way, so thanks for the tip. No teeshirts or mugs saying Wunderschöne Engen, though. Really lacking in tacky souvenirs, the Germans.
This is from Wikipedia. Probably wrong.
Oh, I don’t know. Wick may well have meant “farm” without anyone telling me! And I meant to suggest that the compound goat-wick was disparaging, not wick alone.
“Anglo-Saxon” was apparently an invention of academics in the C19. Pretty handy, given that no-one really understands who was Saxon and who was Angle, and why their neighbours referred to them all as Saxons and yet the country became Angle-land.
Hear, hear, dearie.
Trond, too bad about the teeshirts, but we could always have some screenprinted. I’m glad you’ve visited the place. Now I suppose I’ll have to visit a Crown colony. I wonder if there are any left.
I always thought:
They taught us in school that the Germanic people who overran much of that island were Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. The place ended up getting called England, after the Angles. (Could have been called New Saxony or New Jutland or something else, but luck went the way of the Angles.) Many parts of the place got named Wessex and so on after the Saxons, so in that regard the luck went the way of the Saxons. In the word Anglo-Saxon they both got lucky, and the poor Jutes were left out
But after some hasty googling I now believe that the “Anglo-” in Anglo-Saxon refer not directly to the Angles but rather to England (which happens to be named after the Angles, both in English and in Latin, but that’s not the point), as in such expressions as “Anglo-Indian”.
Whoever coined “Anglo-Saxon” was making up a word for “the Saxons of England”, not “the Angles and the Saxons”.
The word “Anglo-Saxon” is not meant to make you think of the Angles, any more than the word “Anglo-Indian” or the phrase “Anglo-Russian War” is.
“They taught us in school that the Germanic people who overran much of that island were Angles, Saxons, and Jutes”: so said Bede. But he was writing long after the events. Historians dislike saying “I don’t know” but it’s a pretty wise thing to say about a Dark Age.
P.S. WKPD tells me that ‘Anglo-Saxon’ is much older than C19, so I really should have said that the expression was popularised by C19 academics.
We’re coming under attack over here.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2179414/Killed-pheasant-Motorcyclist-killed-bird-flies-60mph.html
Motorcyclist dies after bird flies into him at 60mph
I love this: the Mail requires O-level Physics of its journalists. I suppose next they’ll have Car destroyed by 60mph pedestrians.
That’s good to know that ‘Anglo-Saxon’ is like ‘Anglo-French’, and nothing to do with Angles. It’s put my mind at rest, in which state it will continue until it is compelled to change by external forces acting on it.
Conservation of Anglo-momentum?
That’s Torquemada – the Inquisition comes later.
When should we expect it?
Ah, thank you, how kind: NObody… no, Torque’ll be round in a moment.
Tesi, Asa, and I went for a bicycle ride on Wednesday. I saw a foolish grey squirrel come within inches of being run over by a bike (not one of ours), and something which I took for a bat navigated deftly around first Tesi then me. No pheasants, though.
Everybody expects the inquisition these days. What nobody expects is the circumcision.
Squirrels, bats & birds with their jerky movements live as if in a speeded-up movie. I’m sure instants of time appear much more spread out if you’re a squirrel; so although it may seem like coming within inches to us, to a squirrel – or to the birds that dodge and dive in front of my car tyre – it’s long enough. Elephants are a different matter.
Si monumentum requiris, circumcice.
The bat seemed to know what it was doing. The squirrel not so much.
It appeared at the edge of the bike path and paused in alarm when it saw something coming. I believe the bicycle cautiously slowed a bit, to give the squirrel time to think. At the last possible moment the squirrel darted across in front of it. Maybe this was a thrill-seeking squirrel. Or maybe you are right that it was not such a close call from the squirrel’s point of view. My own belief is that the squirrel didn’t grasp some key elements of the situation.
I expect that Grumbly will take me to task for anthropomorphizing the squirrel. And the bicycle, too.
I’ve noticed that Topsy the dog is quite a slow thinker sometimes (does she want to go outside or not?), but still has extraordinarily quick reactions compared to me.
My only objection is to anthropomorphising* God as a white-haired, white-bearded, white man. Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel depiction looks so European that I confuse it with Father Christmas.
*(incidentally, it occurred to me to ask during the five minutes it took me to type that verb, why are there no pro-verbs, only pronouns?)
The rains returned at lunchtime. At least the sunny spell gave us (i) two ripe tomatoes (grown in the back porch), (ii) a bumper crop of alpine strawberries (grown in the gravel between paving slabs), and (iii) several entertaining visits from a hen pheasant.
Did you plant the alpine strawberries? They seem to be pointed like raspberries, not quite like the tiny wild ones we have in our garden (they’ve spread tremendously this year).
We planted seeds in the garden years ago and since then they’ve sought out their preferred environments. I suppose ‘between paving slabs’ is their approximation to hanging onto an alpine rock.
P.S. Ours are roundish rather than pointy.
I reckon they like the rain. Slugs don’t seem to want to eat them. Incidentally, I throw all our slugs on the grass and they’re doing a remarkable job keeping it short. They also weed between the cobbles – hard little workers.
Crown, those are indeed very pointed strawberries in the pictures that you linked to, but the raspberries I have known have not been particularly pointed.
We used to have wild strawberries (very small–hardly worth eating–and not pointy) near our summer place. i wonder what happened to them. I think some were obliterated during a construction project and others were overwhelmed by more thug-like wild plants. Or maybe they are just hard to see among the prickly thugs: I should look some time.
Perhaps not pointed, but more often cylindrical then spherical – at least the raspberries we’ve got.
I think the wild strawberries here flourish over a period of years and then die back, but as in so many things I’m no expert.
Buttermilk the bouncy goat.
Language, you & Mrs Hat could have a couple of those (one to bounce, one to be bounced off). Think about it. Fun for you, fun for them, fun for the grandson. They’re just down the road, in Maine…