February’s Pleasures

~  Adjectival  forms of cities. 

The Glaswegian dialect (also called Glasgow patter*) can be particularly difficult to decode.  I learned the meaning of Glaswegian one evening this week and came across it the next day.  Finding a new vocabulary word the second time is more fun than the first.  Hey!  I know you!  (*So, noo thit yez ‘uv been telt  aboot the wye thit
Glesca punters yaze ra patter don’t yooz bloks try in’ make
iz look luk eejits thit cannae talk right oan yer fancy high
falutin’ American websites, awright!!)

My son and I watched Gaudy Night on Netflix Instant Watch.  As the movie opened on to an old English campus, Collin said “That looks Oxfordian”  (can you see me looking at you, mouthing the word with a wide-eyed questioning look and shrug … Oxfordian?)  I delight in learning correct local appelations which make me feel less like a tourist and more like a temporary resident.  Coming from my son is sprinkles on top of Cold Stone. Oxfordian

~  Pansies.  There’s nothing like an injection of color on a gray-white February day.  These girls need water, food, something.  But they give me great pleasure. $0.98 at the local box store.

~  New food experience: friends had us over and fixed seafood gumbo.  I learned that if it’s called gumbo it has okra in it.  I never knew I liked okra!  Yum, yum!

~  Photography tutorials
 
    BetterPhoto.com  The courses cost $$, but free tips and great links abound
    PhotoSecrets.com  I’m soaking up “Great Landscape Photography”
    PhotoCourse.com  Clicking on sample chapter downloads the entire book.

~  Resurfaced notes.  I did a Grand Canyon Clean (very deep, took all day) of my desk and found this quote I scribbled down, no attribution, long before we were given a trip to Great Britain.

If architecture is
the art of enclosing light and air
in a shell of stone,
then Lincoln Cathedral is
one of the world’s masterpieces.

 
 Photo by Sam Stroube
William Byrd was the organist at Lincoln from 1563-1572.
Do you know Byrd’s music?

Lincoln Cathedral, Angel Choir, 1895 by Sally Maltby
Art.com More Sally Maltby

Happy Friday, my online friends,

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12 thoughts on “February’s Pleasures

  1. Just stopping by to say HI!  I hope you enjoy the day — looks like a blank page waiting to be filled  Or you are showing the color of your day (or month) white with snow  Or, you sat down to write and suddenly found someone or something needing your attention … or maybe you didn’t intend for people like me to speculate about your motives, wishing us to be content in knowing you are there with thoughts for the day   Blessings, Laurie

  2. I had just started and accidentally hit the wrong button!  It just took some time to get the links up, etc.  It is a good morning, though.  Hey, it’s Friday, a payday, and I have leftovers ready for dinner tonight.  Yay!

  3. Why does the 2nd photo of Lincoln Cathedral say, “Angel Choir”? Am I missing something?Isn’t it amazing how flowers can be such a salve to our souls in the winter? I have this one phalaenopsis that looks like someone stippled the colors onto it. Usually they only have maybe 2-3 flowers open, but this one has 2 spikes with 5-6 flowers each, petite, but gorgeous. It gives me great pleasure! (…bought at Half Moon Bay a few weeks ago )

  4. Carol,We are watching through the Monarch of the Glen series. It starts out as a wonderful series with great music, lovely scenery, fantastic characters and lots of Scottish dialect. The series definitely deteriorates into something rather soap-operish after, say, season 4 but it is still a great place to get a fix of Scottish  scenery and dialect.  The thick Scottish accents, some of the Glaswegian, make concentration and high volume necessary.  I practice these accents in my sleep.

  5. Mel, the choir is the name of the part of the cathedral where the choristers and clergy sit.  The seats are moveable, thus not shown in that photo.  And yes, I love the flowers.  For years I passed on bulbs because they come and go so quickly.  Once I started planting them I realized that the color they give for the few brief weeks is WORTH it.  Oh, how they make my heart sing!Hi Cindy! (waving)  I miss you, friend!  But here you are!  Monarch of the Glen is on our Netflix queue.  I have the book, trying to read it before we start watching, but that may not happen.  I think my reading will be more substantive (Life of John Knox, Letters of Samuel Rutherford) and my viewing will be lighter.Dana, I’ve been spending a LOT of time looking for churches. (Email suggestions, if you have them)  My husband’s rules 1) we will be worshipers, not tourists and 2) the church must be faithful to God’s Word have narrowed the scope.

  6. @magistramater – Hello again…thanks for sharing the links to the photography sites! I’m glad it’s a good day — we have had the week off here for “winter break” so I have enjoyed catching up with reading (books and blogs), and in fact, am now off to the library with my sons. Take care, Laurie

  7. Glaswegian is fascinating to listen to but MUCH easier to translate when read than heard. . .  If you get a chance to hit a pub or 2 in the Glasgow area, sit back and listen, all you can really do is soak it up and hope for the  best! LOL

  8. Ooooh, love “Gaudy Night”, took a while to figure out all the Oxfordian references, though.  Still have trouble telling Elis from Kingsmen!  (Bet the Brits would confuse University of Georgia and Georgia State University, though.)

  9. Hello! There is a good church in Aidrie, my son has been there.  The pastor loves to take other Reformed believers on Covenanter tours! 
    I have to disagree about the Gumbo, the okra doesn’t make it Gumbo, the dark roux does.  Many people in New Orleans eat (and make) their Gumbo without okra.  Anyway, take your friend’s word for it, you hardly know me!
    I’ll look up the name of that church, or ask my son when he wakes up…Cindy, do you remember the name of it?

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