So yesterday the chicken, only two pounds but a lot of meat on a little frame, did me proud.
Today is marginally warmer but the icy wind kept me down to a couple of recycling and mailbox walks, not the real one I hope for this week.
I noticed I just missed the opening of the Japanese micro 72 season year.
This is the result of the Striking Virus which did a job on my thinking ability, just fog. When I get to where it comes back, I'll be back, too. The spirit is willing but the brain is tottering.
I had to explain.
Speaking of Arabic, when I mentioned my brother Kevin recently, I searched unsuccessfully for a picture, must have given it to Handsome Son, but in this repository of special stuff, literally the only thing I inherited from my parents
Found this,
Left, Kev's self teaching of Russian. He must have been a teenager, since he died at 20 in the Fleet Air Arm, ww2. I wonder if this urge to self teach, especially foreign languages with different alphabets, is in the DNA.
On the right is a bit of fern from sister Rita's wedding bouquet, from 1953.
The book itself was a standby in my house. My mother bought it on weekly payments, because she believed a house needed a dictionary. This was in the 1930s, when the older ones were all in school. She couldn't afford both a vacuum cleaner and the dictionary, so she went for the dictionary.
I think that was heroic, considering her workload with a large family and no appliances, not even a washing machine. Walking the walk.
I read this dictionary cover to cover when I was sick in bed, which probably helped develop a vocabulary out of all expectation from a little kid. My older sisters told me I was reading at three, so by six and seven I guess I was equal to at least going for it.
Anyway if we've recovered from the Great Tiebreak Debate, are you up for a puzzle?
Wow, you sure got your Mom's money's worth out of that dictionary! I feel like I should know the solution to today's puzzle, but I don't. Yet.
ReplyDeleteArrrrr, matey, I got it!
ReplyDeleteYo-ho-ho!
DeleteBuilding my vocabulary one Field and Fen post at a time. My crocheting and knitting has fallen into abeyance (except for my recent foray into beginning to knit socks - which is itself now in abeyance).
ReplyDeleteWhat an especially sweet find your brother's hand-written Russian lesson must have been. And that's quite a story of your mother, and you reading a dictionary. Your fascination with words started young!
That's hilarious! Never thought of this blog as a vocabulary builder!
Delete"The spirit is willing but the brain is tottering." - the perfect phrase.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of Arabic, I was on a recent walk with another American friend and our Iraqi friend, who was apologizing for her imperfect English. Diane pointed out that were we conversing in Arabic, our conversation in its entirety would be "Habibi". "Kunduz." "Kunduz habibi". "Habibi" and so ad infinitum. (Habibi = sweetheart"; Kunduz = otter).
Our microseasons seem to last about two days each this winter, but may repeat a couple of times a week. Not much seasonal forward impetus yet. The garden remains in a state of abeyance.
That dictionary holds many meanings and many memories.
Chris from Boise
Similarly my entire Chinese conversation would be ni-hao, nainai! Hi grandma! Wouldn't get us far.
DeleteThat chicken looks delicious and many meals from it.
ReplyDeleteI love reading dictionaries to this day. Your mother was a wise woman.
I remember thinking Brief was a place in south east asia as when I was a kid and the Vietnam war was on the newsreader would say "And here is the news in brief" which was then all about the war.
As for the puzzle, I think I've got it - if not I shall have to take a walk.
Good clue there! Yes, on kids and how they hear meanings.
DeleteGot the pizzle in a hurry. Now, the puzzle is HOW COME? Why did it hit me out of the blue? And I think the same thing already happened to a few others.
ReplyDeletePS. I got it before the hints, too!
ReplyDeleteYes, it's weird when that happens before you even think about it.
DeleteMy parents bought book after book after book on time. Or maybe my mother, as mom was the money person. Not Dad.
ReplyDeleteSame in our family.
DeleteHmmm, I got a different word. A vegetable (plural) the Brits use a different name for, though Crayola never took them seriously.
ReplyDeleteNow I'm puzzling over your word. Usually plurals, like proper nouns, are disallowed though. But I'm continuing to puzzle.
DeleteI think your word is only eight letters.
DeleteYes, with the plural it's nine letters.
DeleteIf it's the word I'm thinking, you may not have enough letters at the front end.
DeleteRemember it's three letters before and three after the GPL.
DeleteYour chicken looks very yummy indeed.
ReplyDeleteIt’s great you can make so many different meals from one roast chook
No chestnuts roasting here at the moment. Come autumn I’ll definitely get some and enjoy them during a cool evening.
They're such a treat. Not so easy to get around here. They're really best roasted in an open fire, but it can be hard on the hearthrug!
DeleteI think Rod Stewart would have used one of these
ReplyDeleteI got the puzzle! There were hints?
ReplyDeleteSee earlier comments. Commenters provide clues and hints.
DeleteVery interesting post. Interesting that you've been studying Arabic! Looks like a difficult language. I recently took a look at learning Japanese because there is much I admire about their culture. But I decided I wasn't up for that challenge and settled on Old English.
ReplyDeleteI also have to mention that the only thing my husband inherited from his folks was a dictionary. His sister got everything else.
Your husband may have inherited the best thing -- a love of knowledge. I treasure what my dictionary meant to my mom.
DeleteGlad the chicken worked out well. I've never heard of a "microseason" but that's an interesting idea. As for the puzzle, I'm thinking something nautical.
ReplyDeleteI think you may be on the right, um, track, with the puzzle.
DeleteI find the small "natural" chickens to be so superior to any others I have ever roasted.
ReplyDeleteYour mother indeed gave her family a gift by buying that dictionary. And the story speaks of such a different time. I imagine that you would not be who you are today if you had not had access to it at such a young age. You know- I've heard stories of many people who grew up to be great thinkers, artists, even musicians who were bedridden for sometimes months or more as children. It gave their brains time to run free, I think, to develop in ways that could not have happened otherwise.
I think you're right about the illness and its effects. I also learned to be alone a great deal, just occasional visits from family, but mainly in bed in a different room, and I'm sure that contributed to making art independently, reading, writing stories, all that. I also missed a lot but that couldn't be helped.
DeleteThat was funny, but I am currently being held in Abeyance, it seems,
ReplyDeleteOh dear, Abeyance sometimes happens when we least expect it! Let's hope you're sprung soon.
DeleteDuring the few years I lived in Macedonia every year starting in about November or so we could buy roasted chestnuts from the street vendors. I had never had anything like it before or since. Total delight.
ReplyDeleteToo many already got the puzzle already, it was fun. Thanks
There's something so good about newly roasted chestnuts eaten redhot, out of a paper bag.
DeleteHad to do a bit of walking to figure out the puzzle!
ReplyDeleteInteresting to read about the sacrifice your mother made in order to provide a learning opportunity for her kids - that was huge, particularly for those times.
Sounds as if you got the puzzle. And yes, it was huge. But she knew that education and knowledge were their way out of her poverty. And though she died young, she lived to see the survivors succeed.
DeleteI think I got the puzzle. It must have been the 90 minutes in the MTI tube! The chicken from Misfits is good. When it's all gone you then get stock. That is a treasure, having your brother's paper with his language lesson.
ReplyDeleteI guess it gave you something to think about during the endless scan! I'm getting my money's worth out of this chicken.
DeleteIt looks like your family genetics fosters an interest and ability in languages, Boud.
ReplyDeleteIt looks that way, doesn't it?
DeleteWhat a wonderful woman to opt for the dictionary!
ReplyDeleteYes. She had her priorities firmly right.
Delete