It’s that time of year. The time when everything seems to be growing and all the trees and shrubs are coming into flower.
It’s all very well to walk round gasping at the inexpressible beauty of it all and taking photos to post on social media, but it’s very frustrating not to have any idea of what type of blossom any of it is.
I think I might be right in identifying blackthorn due to its utter exuberance.
Continue reading “more or less the same”
Last week I complained that with all the different days that people celebrate, every day has to do multiple duty, meaning that each week has far more than seven days.
But it’s not just the days that fly by apace.
Continue reading “summertime blues”
Friday was World Sleep Day and Red Nose Day. Yesterday was the Vernal Equinox, the beginning of spring, International Happiness Day and Persian New Year. Today is Census Day and International Day of Forests.
That’s eight days in just 72 hours and doesn’t come close to naming all the high days and holy days that other people celebrate. It’s really no wonder I am exhausted.
Continue reading “day after day”
Names are important and frequently problematic. There are plenty of examples in myth, religion and fiction of the power that comes with knowing the True Name of something or someone.
My own name has certainly caused me problems over the years. One of my earliest school memories is of being very distressed when the headmaster mis-spelled my name on some paperwork; he told me it didn’t matter, but it mattered to me.
Continue reading “by any other name”
Occasionally a phrase in a news story or online article brings me up short and demands to be noted and preserved in some way.
The phrase that caught my attention this week comes from an article on the current all-time high of double births, which has been so widely reported under headlines that use the phrase “Twins peak” that I can only assume that is an exact quotation from a press release.
Continue reading “counting on it”
don't confuse the narrator 