Words
People name babies April, May, June and August (from Latin: grand), but not November. And it’s no wonder. November in a word: stark. If it were a crayon: grey. October’s brilliant yellows dissolve into brown crinkles on the pavement and trees are left shivering black skeletons. But this Iowa afternoon defines anomaly (divergence from what is usual or expected). On my walk: lawns July green, skies September blue. November, you’re nearly name worthy.
From Michelle Edwards comes this excellent word for the day:
parry
and from my favorite dictionary this brief and poetic definition:
to fend off (a blow)
to sidestep (a question) adeptly
Leo and Phoenix, July
There’s a constant thump on our roof in the fall - an all hours thunder; rumbles, bumps, a blunder as apples fall from their tree. These apples aren’t pretty or tasty, just loud. I stomped outside this afternoon to see how many more there could possibly be and found this fellow smiling contentedly into the weak late autumn sun. I hope he hangs on for awhile.
DARE has four full pages of apple entries. From apple haw to appleknock and of course apple pandowdy. But my favorite is an expression from North Brooklyn, circa 1934. Everything is Apple! means everything is okay.
Spectacle is one of those words that’s simply fun to say and brings to mind rambunctious antics or unexpected delights. Don’t make a spectacle of yourself, your mother says. So secretly (or not so secretly) you wish to be, in the words of Chambers: a sight, especially one that is impressive, wonderful, ridiculous.
It makes sense then, that eye glasses are also called spectacles. I stopped for ice cream in Grand Marais, MN recently and while I was disappointed to find the shop closed, discovering this envelope exchange taped to the window nearly made up for it.
Ontario Spectacles: Here are your spectacles - Thunder Bay. Thanks a lot for keeping them. Sure could have used an ice cream! Next year!
One lion hearted dandelion holding fast its feathery wigDandelion comes from the 15th century french dent de lion or lion's tooth because of the shape of its leaves but call it by any of these if you'd like: arnica, blow weed, butterflower, butterweed, carrot plant, china lettuce, coffee cup, dandy, down-head, fluff-weed, fortune-teller, grandaddy's whiskers, gray-haired grandmother, hawkbit, Irish daisy, little captain, one o'clock, puffball, puffweed, wine blossom, wine weed, yard flower.
source: Dictionary of American Regional English
This down-head was spied at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum.
