it's been a challenging summer in many ways
i won't elaborate, enough to say that
a thing happened that should never have happened
leaving a big hole and deep sadness [not looking for sympathy, just setting the scene]
while other things became submersed in the overwhelming tide
on the bright side
residents of the Mt Pleasant District will be pleased to know i have finally this week made a start on cutting the hay that is flourishing in what used to be my garden
one of the several [other] things i have been procrastinating about
is the writing of an article for a German magazine
in the German language.
whilst skirting about the issue and nibbling at the edges i stumbled upon Mark Twain's analysis of the German Language.
i'm still chuckling.
in the event you would care to join me in my mirth
feel free to click on this link
it's at least a teapot's worth of tea in terms of reading time
perhaps even something stronger
and before anyone begins to accuse me of anti-Teutonic tendencies
kindly remember German is my first language [so i am allowed to make fun of it]
and forgive my broken English, i learned it at Kindergarten in Melbourne when i was 4 .
in other news, you could have knocked me down with a feather yesterday
when MyTallest asked me whether he might use a dyepot
turned out he wished to add camouflage tones to his old TaeKwonDo trousies
in order that he might more successfully sneak up on rabbits
whose population is presently reaching over-abundance [three rabbits, three years, three million is the accepted prognosis]
Eucalyptus maculata + rust from an old bore pipe on un-mordanted cotton, not bad for a beginner. i believe he's planning to overdye with onionskins next, to give things a slightly dustier aspect.
Loved reading your story in the previous post .. lovely ... and isn't it nice when our children want to try something new that we never expected!!! His garments look fabulous .. maybe there will be a trend. haha
ReplyDeletelove it love it!
ReplyDeletexox - eb.
Wow, quite nice!!! Love to see them again after the onion skins dye too!
ReplyDeleteThat blue is gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteAnd thank you for that link and the laugh! As a Canadian who's been living these past 4 years in Germany, I often feel that there's not a chance of my ever learning the language properly. Any language with 6 words for "the"!!
the rabbits won't know what's hit 'em!
ReplyDeleteawwww
ReplyDeletea chip off the old block
it is heart warming when those genes peep through..
[ as oppossed to when the JEANS peep thru coz then they require mending ...hmmmmm ...and thinking Tall One can probs do that already ]
he sewed a pair of jeans when he was fourteen, just to prove that he could. and his mending is inventive-but-effective!
DeleteOh that Mark Twain piece was just gorgeous! Thanks for that, and for the heads-up to put the kettle on.
ReplyDeleteI had an extra twist as I learned German in Switzerland. Everything was written in German. If I ever asked anybody what a word was they would helpfully give me the Hochdeutsch version. But everyone around me was speaking totally different words. I ended up with something I guess one could also describe as inventive-but-effective, and with a pronounced Swiss accent that I would like to think is cute.
Da meine guete! - as I still often say to myself. It just works better than 'oh my goodness.'
Zwitzerdeutsch [or however you write it] ...Schweizer mundart
Deleteis another whirled entirely. Gruezi mitteinand.
I hope he gets the rabbits, J has been waging war with the shot gun again. When I think we got married ( a long time ago) on his rabbit money, we nearly eliminated them but now too many hobby farmers like them, dont do anything about them, and back they come.
ReplyDeleteMothers always have some uses.
The Mark Twain bit brought back memories of trying to learn German so we could know a bit about what we were doing in Austria skiing, hopeless!
as a little girl i learned german from my mother and thaugt her dutch. She said the same about dutch as Mark Twain said about german. And around us they where speaking different dialects. Felt like growing up on the tower of babel.
ReplyDeleteAh, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree! The future camouflage looks like it's off to a good start.
ReplyDeleteLovely to so you have a "follower" in your own family!
ReplyDeleteStarted on the German piece: will continue later, like it a lot !!
But it sounds very familiar, when I started studying that language at school (at 12 years, together with French and English) And like Martine says: they say the same things about Dutch...