It's only words, and words are all I have.....

Stephen Fry - language and fonts
~~
From our beloved BeeGees:
It's only words ...
...and words are all I have to take your heart away.

These words, found in the classic BeeGees song Words, are at the heart of this blog. I'm not influential, even in the Blogosphere, but if I have anything it is language, words...and a few photographs of doubtful quality.  But words can make all the difference can't they...when babies go from gurgles and coos to whole sentences; I love you; I'm sorry; what a great idea!

Indeed, words are all most of us - 

but, sadly, not all of us - 

have to take a heart away.

Just a word: blogulosity

I love to find fabulous new words and to-day I have discovered one, courtesy of that linguistic maestro Stephen Fry. I have tried to find a definition for blogulosity by way of a Google search, but to no avail.  Here is the context in which the illustrious Mister Fry uses it:

So here is the first of a series of blogulosities in which I try and share a personal delight.

I have discovered though that this word might not have originated with Stephen Fry. There appear to be a few blog entries ahead of his usage including this one.

But I love the word.  Say it out loud.  Let it roll off your tongue. First the explosive consonant "b", the two palatal consonants "l", the sibilant "s", finished with a satisfying tip palatal "t".  It is music.  

A Latin lover?

Last night, Herself put before Miss Eagle a little translation problem. She had seen some young fellas with mohawks in a clapped out Torana and a sticker on the car which said in Latin:

Ego subdolus consilium habeo

Miss Eagle dragged her Grade 10 Latin up from the hidden dungeons of her memory and managed to translate ego and consilium and habeo. But that subdolus had her stumped. So then Miss Eagle got out a Latin dictionary on the 'net but still it did not seem to make sense. So Miss Eagle - at this stage she needed a sort of Latin thesaurus - went looking for an alternative word for her own translation of consilium. Herself was standing at Miss Eagle's right shoulder and we were puzzling over how to put "subdolus consilium" together when - and this was within 30 seconds, dear Reader - Herself's face lit up. She not only had the phrase, she knew the source and the connection.

Now Miss Eagle has googled the Latin phrase without a result. So she thinks there may be some small degree of difficulty here for some people. The phrase, in English, is on the 'net - of course from its source. So Miss Eagle is offering a packet of Tim Tams as the prize for the first blogger with the correct translation and its source posted in the comments. If you come from outside Australia, Miss Eagle has to advise that this is a much coveted prize.

Words and pictures

Miss Eagle has chosen to post these not because of visual impact but because of the wonderful words and the fact that they are gathered together in one place.

Grand United Order of Free Gardeners

Did you get that, Miss Eagle asks?

Grand - United - Free - Gardeners

What do these words conjure up?

Green thumbed people who care passionately about freedom?

Not enslaved gardeners but free gardeners?

And they have got together in an order -

and order which is united and grand

and, above all, it is a friendly society.

How charming, Miss Eagle thinks!

Family sayings - 1

In the long, long ago in Miss Eagle's girlhood, little Miss Eagle was searching for something in the big reclining Ottoman where her mother stored all sorts of stuff. Little Miss Eagle discovered a UFO: a beautiful linen supper cloth which her mother had worked beautifully many years before but had not completed. Litt Miss Eagle asked her mother why she had not completed it because she did such beautiful embroidery. LME's mother said "I would rather spend the time making a dress. You can wear it". This became a saying in Miss Eagle's family as a criterion of practicability and workability. "Can your wear it?"

Solutions to problems and political policies would be judged by the same yardstick...but can you wear it!

Postscript: If you, dear Reader, have a similar story of family comments turning into family wisdom, please share.

Wait-a-bit

Over at Wattletree Road at Malvern there is a little group of terraces each with its name above. My favourite is Wait-a-bit. Don't you think that is a charming name? It conjures up ideas of welcome, have a cup of tea, take a load off your feet. And then I think of other things like patience, take time out, and wait-a-bit and all will be well.