Musings

The English word avocado etymologically traces to the Nahuatl (“Aztec”) āhuacatl also written auacatl. The spelling is different, but the sounds are more similar. That final -tl is tricky. We English speakers tend to stick a vowel sound between them. Nope. It’s slightly easier for me to eliminate the vowel temptation by starting with tl- in practice. Still, -tl without a vowel sound is against the customary English sound patterns.

It’s better to learn a language by listening rather than reading/writing, I think….

Posted at 9:50 PM | Comments Off on Fruity thoughts

We had several hours with my brother today. He was here for meetings downtown. He said he’d like to get outdoors and walk a bit before the hours he’d be spending sitting in a plane returning to SEA. So, we took him to Piedmont Park (not original, but almost always rewarding), where we found lunch and some off-white plant specimens.

The upper photo is of a long hydrangea bloom, its weight bringing it horizontal. This one is what I think is cottonwood “cotton”…with a slightly green tinge.

We had a grand time, and also saw ducks and geese and turtles, a few dogs, and many people strolling and generally enjoying the afternoon. Just as we did.

Posted at 8:47 PM | Comments Off on Off-white

I spotted the first blooming dogwood I’ve noticed this year…

…and this reminded me of a European scenario.

Posted at 8:11 PM | Comments Off on Of note

What has happened to the year? Zooooooooom. It’s May…MAY. I know this, but at a deep level, I’m not there yet. Similarly, I’m not quite groking that it is foxglove season yet.

Posted at 9:57 PM | Comments Off on Month five

On a typical day in this household, we lack scheduled activities (say: retirees). Today, we acted! We early voted, no small thing because there was a long slate of offices needing consideration, although many were unopposed, incumbent judges 🙁.

The second activity was I went to an outdoor meeting of BookClub. The evening sky was fabulous from the poolhouse (autocorrected temporarily to poorhouse 🤣). We talked about “The Women” by Kristin Hannah, a novel about American women nurses in Vietnam in the late 60s. We had a retired nurse from slightly earlier among us, and so a fascinating discussion. She was more in and near Saigon than Hannah’s nurses, so the nursing was slightly different, but still: war. Excellent read.

Posted at 11:10 PM | Comments Off on Oot, aboot

When the morning sky looks this captivating, ya just gotta smile.

Posted at 11:09 PM | Comments Off on Even before coffee

I forgot to mention yesterday that the night before I dreamed that I was visiting with a crew excavating an archaeological site, and we were sitting around the crew house and Jay-Z was discoursing knowledgeably about the site.

A late Easter poinsetta?

Posted at 9:54 PM | Comments Off on Disjointed

The peony-blooming process strikes me as accelerated this year. I also don’t remember the petals loosing so much color, but that may simply be my inattention to (retaining) detail.

Posted at 9:52 PM | Comments Off on Peony progression

Usually my activities are light on Sunday. Today I lazed, and did very little.

Posted at 10:22 PM | Comments Off on Spring slump?

I went out early in the moist sunshine to see the morning humidity. I found it in the air…

…and on the vegetation.

Late morning, we went to the Swedish store of exports from Ukraine and Poland…and got the…point.

Back home, a peony was new-opened.

Posted at 7:26 PM | Comments Off on Fresh sights