Entry for May 01, 2007 A Gerbera Morning Greeting To You All !!

Entry for April 28, 2007 Irish Gaelic 101

P.S. Please enlarge pic for better viewing.

Most English speakers have little or no practical knowledge of accents / diacritics .... nor how they are used in the writing systems of many modern languages. However , to explore and explain what purpose accents serve would only guarantee the automatic self-destruction of this blog . What could be more sleep inducing than listing them all ?..... acute and grave accents as in French ' déjà vu ', cedillas as in French ' façon ', circumflex as in French ' tête ' , umlaut and ring as in Swedish ' vän ' and ' blå ' , the tilde in Spanish , etc Nevertheless , I think I'll take a chance anyways and say a few words about two interesting cases that are constantly omnipresent in my little world these days...... my personal handle here in Yahoo360 .... SeanRud.....and the Gaelic word for my dear Ireland...... Éire.

Let's start with SeanRud. Should you look the word up in a Gaeilge - Béarla ( Gaelic - English ) Dictionary you would find the word as such with the meaning , " old thing , old person , grumpy old man ". Essentially "sean" means "old" and "rud" has as its basic meaning "thing". Were the Sean Connerys and Sean Penns of this world to write their name in Gaelic the way it should be penned then they would write " Seán " ( which corresponds to English " John " ) and pronounce it with a long vowel " á "..... very close to a prolonged " ah " in the English word " father ". S before vowels e and i is always pronounced " sh ".

" Irish history writing Pet peeves
It really annoys me when people who should know better use the word Eire when they should use Éire. " The foregoing sentence is drawn from a stamp collector's site on the internet. If you look very closely at the country's official name on the stamps in the above picture you shall notice a certain flagrant discrepancy..... as not all are spelt correctly with the " fada" (not "fatwa" ) or length accent Éire. Usually a printing mistake like this would make the stamps more valuable to collectors. However , there were too many errors made either through ignorance or simply because of laziness ...... this outright disregard / disrespect for Irish tradition and linguistic patrimony sickens and infuriates those of us who care. The right way to write the dear old sod's name is Éire ... pronounced "aayre " whereas without the fada .... eire...... the word means burden , load , cargo , lading , etc and is pronounced " ayre ".

There are many words used when referring to Ireland... Gort Féilim ... Feilim's Land , Feilim being an ancient Irish culture hero. One common anglicized term for the Emerald Isle is Erin which is derived from the dative form of Éire ..... Éirinn ........ as seen in one of the stamps ( lower left ) above honouring the coming of Christianity to Ireland.... Teacht na Críostaíochta go hÉirinn.

Entry for April 25, 2007 What a Difference Four Days Make !!

Some of you may remember the song , " What a difference a day makes , 24 little hours "? Well , when I awoke this morning and looked outside after spending almost a full day in the basement manning my pumps I realized that the scenario had changed ...... 4 days of out - of - the - ordinary heat had not only brought on the Big Melt , hence the flooding ...... but likewise had transformed the scenery in my backyard and surrounding area. In the picture from April 21st there remain roughly two feet to one yard of snowcover whereas the title photo shows you what it looks like 4 days later. Just a little info for those of my friends who are not used to this kind of weather phenomena.

To those of you who are interested in the final score in the annual aquatic event pitting myself against the Yellow River........... I got the best of the bugger 7 to 1......... and I want to thank all of you who dropped by to cheer me on during the night. Very little water made its way inside...... only a wee bit seeped in through the cracks in the cement floor . Yesterday's fun was just runoff water from the melt ...... when the lakes break up higher up into the hinterland then there could be another major skirmish with our neighbourly creek. However , the break up is quite irregular .... not taking place in all lakes at the same time..... which lessens the threat !

Entry for April 23, 2007 The Pumps Are Humming !!

11 o'clock at night and the pumps in the basement have been in action pitching evil out the windows. So far , so good ! I'll probably stand ... or sit.... guard overnight in case a pump burns out ... or the floater becomes entangled .... or any other unforeseen impediment should come into the picture to screw up our well thought out plan of attack for repelling the enemy. I'll keep adding to this post as the night wears on mainly for my own future reference ....... and for those of you who might be interested in our annual aquatic event here on the banks of the enchanting Yellow River.

2 o'clock in the morning and the water is gushing freely up the sump holes and through the long crack between the main house and the extension. However , still no major problem for the moment and I have 4 back-up pumps on stand by , having repaired the fourth this very afternoon. Fluff'll probably hit the hay pretty soon even though she doesn't need all that beauty sleep since she already is beauty personified !! So I guess it'll be me and McDuff pooling our efforts to keep the wolf at bay !! Merde ! The lights just flickered ! Wouldn't a power outage come in handy right about now ?¨Ça m'est déjà arrivé il y a vingt ans !! Happened 20 years ago! What a mess !!For about one half hour now the pumps have been working " Full pin "...... not at 25 second intervals as earlier.

Haven't had much time to post as the river peaked at roughly 4 o'clock and the peak is still on at 6..... so I am taking five minutes for a coffee..... can hardly leave the pumps an instant as it comes in swells gushing up the holes in the basement and through the cement joints. However , all in all... we've been winning the battle and I am optimistic . Back later.

8 bells and still no sign of the water receding at all !! Pumps working full blast ... even two in the same hole in the furnace room. All in all though , I feel much better than a 4 this morning.

Just after 11 o'clock et le niveau d'eau a commencé à baisser... water level in river starting to go down... however , same inflow of water into basement for the moment. I think we've got the bugger under control !!

Entry for April 21, 2007 In the Throes of the Floes Revisited !!

Once again we are caught up in the throes of the Big Melt with all its advantages and drawbacks........ blazing hot sunny days after a long cold Winter AND the yearly pregnancy of our meek mountain stream and its mutancy into a raging mountain torrent ....... all this fun and entertainment taking place right in our very own backyard through which the Rivière Jaune flows. I expected water to start trickling slowly into the basement last night but , to my surprise , around midnight it peaked and even began going down somewhat at 3 in the morning ........ which allowed me to grab a bit of " shut-eye" until 9 this morning. Whatever be the case tonight after a very hot day of melting snow and rising waters all my pumps are well-installed and ready for action ........ even three back-up pumps lying beside each hole down in the basement. And so as George W. Bush once said from the deck of an aircraft carrier whilst celebrating " Mission Accomplished " in Iraq , " Bring 'em on !"..... I'm ready !! I'm a bit luckier than George W. though...... I know who my enemy is and that after May 1st the battle will be over until next year .

Like a rolling stone I have not gathered much moss lately. Nor has any grass grown under my feet as I have kept rather busy planting dahlias , calla lillies and gladioli in pots and boxes out on the sundeck and gallery...... using my super wheelbarrow to combine good black earth with peat moss so as to produce my miracle potting blend which I have named " meow mix " . When transplanting time comes along after the frost has completely disappeared I shall add some nourishing "bleat" or " baahaahaa" mix......... sheep manure. Great nurturing stuff for hungry little roots. At last count I had roughly 75 units already planted . There is , however , one major inconvenience .... these nights the temperature goes down to 4 or 5 degrees below zero so we have to bring all the boxes and pots into the house. Oh well , in mid May I'll be quite far ahead of all the other gardeners in our area and I am having a barrel of fun at the same time.

Thank you all for your messages and greetings these last two weeks or so . I shall try to get back into the swing of things and comment more on your blogs. Mea culpa !! Happy Earth Day tomorrow........ me , I'm glad to have a place to plant on !! Let's take good care of it !

Entry for April 16, 2007 A Bird in the Hand's Worth Two in the Bush !

I have always been one to listen to the advice and counsels of others ........ and then go about doing pretty much whatever I wished to do in the first place using my own judgement ..... and even moreso the older I got or get !! In societies of yore when the words "elder" and "wisdom" were almost synonymous guys my age were consulted on a daily basis about both practical as well as philosophical issues to be solved within their community. Quite often these precious tidbits of knowledge and wisdom from the past have trickled on down to us in the form of proverbs and quotations.

Now a few years back I became legally old ..... therefore an elder !! So as many of you may have noticed I often quote myself in my blasts and I do this without even batting an eyelash and with the utmost humility. In fact , my blast today is " philosophized " from past experience of being waist deep in crappy "doodah" yet still hopeful as to the outcome. We all have opinions and views about life in general so why not formulate them and create our own "quotes" ? Who knows ? Your friends might find your gems of sagacity pertinent to their own outlooks on life and start citing you in their own blogs.

P.S. My thanks to a grade school student , Erika Aoyama , whose drawing I put in my entry title . I cannot find the site where I found it .

I took one proverb this morning and started to analyse it .... not only in English but also in a few other languages I know a bit about......... A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. In general it simply states that one is better off with something sure and tangible ... already in one's possession... than something vague and uncertain in the future. Does this apply to endangered species ? Are they better off in captivity than out in the wild with the poachers ?

Wee chick , " Jimmy ! Answer me ! "

Here in Québec ..... as throughout the French-speaking world...... the corresponding proverb ..... un "tiens!" vaut mieux que deux " tu l'auras!" ( one "hold this!" is worth more than two "you'll get it !'s ).... seems to insist that having something now is preferred to maybe having it in the future.

The Italians have formulated a beauty. " Meglio un uovo oggi che una gallina domani " . ( Better an egg today than a hen tomorrow ) . I wandered into an Italian chatroom the other night where they were discussing this very proverb and some of the interpretations were rather farfetched. So I added my two bits of deviltry stating that it was all about causal relationships..... the old absurd , assinine debate about which came first ... the chicken or the egg ? And then I gracefully disappeared from the screen. I wanted to go back to the site this morning but couldn't find it.

Fluff just handed me the Swedish version so here it is " En fågel i handen är bättre än tio i skogen " ( One bird in the hand is better than ten in the forest ). So this gives us a one to two ratio for the English and a one to ten ratio for the Swedes! Does this mean that traditionally Swedish society had much less confidence in the ability of its hunters to put food on the table than the English did ? Or are they simply insinuating that Swedish hunters are bad shots ?

Maybe the Spaniards show even less skill than the Swedes !! " Más vale páyaro en mano que ciento volando . ( A bird in the hand is worth more than one hundred on the wing ). And then again... just an afterthought.... why grab birds at all ? Are they not all God's wee creatures and should we not leave them alone to fly freely the open skies and nest in friendly trees ?

And that brings me back to my own Irish where we find a treasure chest of wisdom , " Is fearr breac sa láimh ná bradán sa linn ". ( A trout in the hand is better than a salmon in the pool! ) No birds here !! Here it is a question of size and as most of you know there is not much difference in weight between an Irish trout and our blessed salmon , the latter being only slightly bigger than the latter......... and even longer and weightier upon demand from any respectable " seanchaí " or Irish storyteller and fisherman !! And besides .... if the salmon is cornered in a pool then its being caught is a sure thing. ...... nothing left to chance !

Entry for April 07, 2007 The Year Winter Would'nt Go Away !!

Entry for April 01, 2007 Bonsai , Banzai or Bullseye ?

Are you fed up with your job ? Do you find yourself constantly "dodging" tough issues that might offend co-workers ? Is your daily grind uneventful , boring ...... teetering on the edge of utter " quagmiredom " ........ with little or no job security at all ? Take heart , my friends , as there could be worse jobs than yours on the planet !