An eyeball on a stalk. Who is it stalking?
Tag: #Ragtag Daily Prompt
In a roundabout way
Thanks to Anita from RDP I learned a new word today: crepidate. Since it is a word describing a sound it is not surprising that I did not immediately have a photo at hand to respond. I am grateful for Anita’s explanation but I had to look the word up in other sources, switching from English to German and found that the German variant is mainly used in a medical context, i.e. the sound bones make after a break when the two surfaces rub against each other (ouch!!!). Then I found this on the English wikipedia site:
“Crepitation refers to situations where noises are produced by the rubbing of parts one against the other, as in:
- Crepitus, a crunching sensation felt in certain medical problems
- Rales or crackles, abnormal sounds heard over the lungs with a stethoscope
- A mechanism of sound production in grasshoppers during flight. Also called “wing snapping”.”
Grashoppers! That’s the route I wanted to take and although I was sure that I had a grashopper in my archive somewhere I couldn’t find one. Bummer.
So I went with the second definition: “Rales or crackles, abnormal sounds heard over the lungs with a stethoscope”.
Stethoscope I can do. This particular doctor might hear the crepitation in his own lungs, the way he carries it.
The Story of How We Got Fleeced
Our drinking group with a running problem has about 20 regular participants, about another 20 who turn up on and off and then there are the visitors from other parts of the world, or old timers who’ve moved away and come back for a drink or two. In about 2011 our then haberdasher decided we needed a new piece of attire, something for the cold winter months, and he came up with a blue fleece. It’s warm and even wards off rain if it doesn’t pour down too hard, and the colour is nice. The problem was that they were a) rather generously cut and b) that he only ordered L, XL and XXL. Also, he ordered 250 of them.
At first we sold them with the intent to make a small profit and I still have one from that first year, in L. Soon we started to sell them at cost to anyone who would have them. When some of us went to a meeting further afield meeting other runners, they would take a few of the fleeces along and try to flog them, which usually worked great provided the weather was bad enough and people came unprepared. Then we sold them cut-price as we ran into a storage problem. By now we only had XL and XXL left. And we gave them away as presents. I now have two more, both in XXL with my name embroidered in recognition for serving on the mismanagement team. On a winter’s day we almost look like an army, all in blue and all more or less one size because of their bulkiness.
Backdrop and Stage Drapes
For some it is exhilarating when the proscenium curtain is lifted. They sparkle with a radiant energy on stage.
Until the final curtain comes down.
In memoriam N.P.
At least, I Have Central Heating
The Ragtag prompt today, was a Scottish word, oorie. I had to look it up (and I feel reassured by the fact that some native English speakers had to, as well) and the Collins Dictionary defines it as “gloomy, dismal, or chilled with cold” – the addendum “Scottish” is almost unnecessary, don’t you think.
I immediately thought of this photo, which I took a few years ago.
The Perfect Moment
With magnolias you have to find the perfect moment. One day, they are in full bloom, glorious and magnificent and spectacular. And then, just like that, the zenith of beauty is exceeded, the first blooms drift down and within days, sometimes hours even, the ground is littered with decaying blooms.
Come On, Let’s Go!
A mural illustrating the first line of a German folk song about leaving town and going out into God’s beautiful world.
pictures imperfect blog 