gger humour there as I post the photo on the left of what I found by the barn as I walked up the driveway to get the newspaper this morning. I thought we were back in the early 70s during the Cold War and the Russians had visited during the night. This is what the shore captain/boatbuilder has been spending his free minutes on. And all this time when I saw him diligently puttering by the barn I thought he was working on gear. Apparently the original plan was made by one of his employee's father and they made a mould and fabricated it with fiberglas, sealed it with gelcoat and now have done the camo thing. It escapes me how you could sneak up on anything in the water while being propelled by an outboard motor, but what do I know?This week my headcold developed into sinusitis and laryngitis, so that was not a fun way to spend my extremely frantic workweek. Life was further complicated by a 1 a.m. crank phone call as it turns out someone had stolen the baby daughter's cell phone when she left it at a pizza place. After we got past the frantic thinking something was seriously wrong about 7 hrs away, and the anger at the profane texts we managed to get back to sleep. By the next day the theft became clear but it still left me ticked off. Apparently there is a scam where low-lifes pick up cell phones and call/text the contact list so the owner will cancel the phone and then....they have a paid for phone to activate or buy minutes for. Creeps.
Ah, nevermind, I didn't wake up as my niece (who has a two year old daughter) did to "I pooped on da floor". Those were the days.
On a more positive note, I'm delighted to announce that we have three daughters studying university in business, education and nursing as of this week. All the usual settling into the courses routine going on. Although I do miss that rush of not being enrolled when September comes around the only thing I would be interested in at present would be a Masters in Scrapbooking or perhaps a Bachelor of Crocheting.
I am however polishing up my presentations for the cruise and doing last minute checks for accuracy. Always the chance of an audience expert waiting to pounce. I've got a line on some quality photos from the Writer in Residence at the library as she has just done a travel book on PEI. I have a mentor meeting with her (to boot my complacency up a notch from wannabe to writer) after I do the Mid Week Break talk on Norway on Wednesday.
I have kept a low profile today as I'm feeling much better after the massage therapist adjusted my head/neck/sinuses yesterday - reading the paper and chatting on the phone and the only domestic duties being a loaf of brownbread to go on the boat tomorrow. Apparently there are four vessels readying to leave as soon as this low pressure system passes. The last loaf I sent with the Boy Captain he was unable to partake of as the first slice he dropped into a puddle on deck, and the crew polished off the remainder while taking their turn on watch.
And speaking of culinary topics, the word of the day courtesy of podictionary is.....cranberries:
Do you suppose that manufacturers of juices would have anticipated a big market for something called marshwhort cocktail?
How about fenberry cocktail?
These were the names in England of the native berries now known as cranberries.
Although the subspecies is different, North American cranberries were similar enough to European varieties that when Europeans first began to harvest cranberries in North America they named them according to a German word that meant “crane berry.”
The Oxford English Dictionary tells us that there was already a trade importing cranberries from North America back to England by 1686 and that the word first shows up as an English word in 1672.
So it was from North America that England adopted the originally German name for these berries.
Even Anatoly Liberman blogging at the Oxford University Press blog asks the question what exactly cranberries have to do with cranes. The Century Dictionary says “the reason of the name is not obvious.”
So no one knows for a fact why cranberries are named on honor of these tall birds but here are a few theories.
Some speculate that the flowers of the plant have stamens that resemble the bill of a crane.
I myself wonder about the fact that—as indicated by their earlier English names marshwhort and fenberry—these plants grow in swampy areas. Like most long legged, long necked, long billed birds, cranes like to hunt in shallow water.
Looking up crane diets I see that they like to eat all sorts of things including berries. I haven’t seen any references that indicate cranes don’t eat cranberries.
Why not name cranberries after cranes?
I looked out the window yesterday before I dragged myself off to work and saw a crane (Great Blue Heron) fishing off the point while surrounded by shags (cormorants) and sighed.Countdown to retirement - September 2012 - less than three years now that I'll work fulltime. There, I've made it official by blogging it.
