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The Essex girls guide to gardening

June 2, 2010 By 1 Comment
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Aka Teaching the girls how to garden

The last month the house of Arrow has been even dirtier than usual.

My daughters aged 4 and 5 have been planting. Cue lots of soil, lots of seeds and even more soil. Have I mentioned there was some soil involved in this gardening project? And mud. No garden is complete without mud it would seem.

Tomato (Tamatar)
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We went to Asda to chose our seeds. Jasmine (aged 4) chose tomatoes, lettuce, cucumber, runner beans and corn on the cob. Kira (aged 5) chose Strawberries, cress and Lobelia. We also bought some propagating trays and several bags of soil. Kira declared she wanted sunflowers so we added those to the trolley as well.

The journey home was quite fraught, driving and trying to explain that they couldn’t plant them in the car, that the dirt should stay in the bag and that sunflowers are also planting as well as eating and we had got the planting variety and not the eating variety! Is there a difference? I have no idea but they were not going to eat them before we got home.

It was all a bit much for poor old mum (me), who only has green fingers when she paints her nails…

So dad took over and soon the dining table was unrecognisable, soil, plants and seeds where everywhere and then Jasmine proudly plonked down a propagating tray on the window sill, with such a gentle touch that half the house shuddered. They’ll never grow I thought. Never in a million years as I watched her use the equivalent of the Hanningfield reservoir to water them.

But they did.

The Tomatoes shot up! followed by the runner beans and cress. I don’t think the sweetcorn has made it or the sunflowers – but Jasmine doesn’t care. The strawberries were lovingly transplanted by Kira into hanging baskets and then water very heavily by Jasmine. They are also growing like wildfire.

We made egg and cress sandwiches, Jasmine was not impressed. Kira turned her nose up as well and no amount of persuading would convince her to eat the cress she had grown! Jasmine has declared she is going to grow things when she grows up. I believe her. She says she is waiting for her ‘martos to grow and she checks them every day, she is a very determined young lady and heaven help them ‘martoes if they don’t grow!

Next year I will be more prepared. I shall go out for the day and leave Kev and the girls to it :)

Sarah

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Anita would like to thank Sarah Arrow for her guest post!

Please follow sarah on twitter -  http://www.twitter.com/SarahArrow

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The global language of gardening

May 18, 2010 By 2 Comments
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Angela  Boothroyd from Online English Lessons, has kindly written a guest post for me, looking at the global language of gardening. I hope you enjoy reading it. Please click through to her website for fantastic, helpful information, about the English Language.

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The English language is full of words and phrases acquired from other languages over centuries of use. The language we use daily has vocabulary derived from many languages, including: French, German, Spanish, Hindi, Arabic and Hebrew. Much of this vocabulary has become so familiar to native English speakers that we rarely stop to consider the origins of the words we use.

As gardeners we are surrounded by Latin plant names, of course, but have you ever wondered where some of the other words we might use while gardening have come from?

Here are a few words you might happen across in an average afternoon’s gardening: :-)

It’s a beautiful day outside so you’ve decided to do a little gardening. You put on your dungarees and gardening gloves, dig a few holes with your trowel, and plant some romaine lettuce, broccoli, pimiento and canteloupe. You follow this with a little light pruning with your secateurs.

All this hard work has tired you out so it’s time to have a rest and dine alfresco on a fresh baguette. You pour yourself a drink from a carafe of wine or water, admire the flora and fauna of your garden, and the trompe l’oiel your sister very kindly painted on your garden wall, and, finally, as a reward for all your hard work, you settle back in your chair and have a siesta!

  • dungarees – from 17C. Hindi dungri
  • trowel – from Old French truele and medieval Latin truella
  • romaine lettuce – early 20C. French, feminine of romain (Roman). The name may have been given because the cos lettuce reached Western Europe through Rome.
  • broccoli – 17C. Italian broccolo cabbage sprout
  • pimiento – 17C. Spanish, from the Latin pigmentum meaning paint or pigment.
  • cantaloupe – 18C. French, from Cantaluppi, a papal estate near Rome, where it was first grown when introduced from Armenia
  • prune – from the Old French proignier
  • secatuers – 19C. French, plural of secateur, from the Latin secare to cut
  • alfresco – 18C. Italian al fresco, in the fresh
  • baguette – 18C. French, from the Italian bacchetto, from the Latin baculum
  • carafe – 18C. French, from Italian caraffa, probably from Arabic garafa, to draw water
  • flora – 16C. Latin, from Flora, the Roman goddess of flowers and gardens
  • fauna – 18C. from Fauna an ancient Italian rural goddess
  • trompe l’oiel – 19C. French, from tromper to deceive, and l’oeil the eye
  • siesta – 17C. Spanish, from the Latin sexta (hora), sixth (hour) of the day, i.e. midday

That’s just a few examples of the origins of some of the many words from around the world we use while gardening.

Do you have any other examples or suggestions? I’d love to hear about them :-)

Guest post from Angela Boothroyd – Online English Lessons for speakers of other languages.

Reference:

Cassell’s Foreign Words & Phrases (2000)

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Guest blog – looking at the tradition of Valentine’s day

February 7, 2010 By Leave a Comment
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Love comforteth like sunshine after rain

Shakespeare Venus and Adonis (1593)

Love is like a ghost, and brooks

Only the chosen seer’s eye.

Coventry Patmore The Angel in the House (1854-1862)

Love’s like the measles – all the worse when it comes late in life

The Wit and Opinions of Douglas Jerrold ‘Love’ (1859)

Amor vincit omnia – Love conquers all

Virgil

Love is the fart

Of every heart:

It pains a man when ‘tis kept close,

And others doth offend, when ‘tis let loose.

Sir John Suckling Love’s Offence (1646)

Loves’s tongue is in the eyes

Phineas Fletcher 1633 Piscatory Eclogues (1633)

Love is, above all, the gift of oneself

Jean Anouilh Ardele (1949)

Whatever your personal definition of love, and whether you think Valentine’s Day is all commercial hype and a money-making con, or the perfect opportunity to express your feelings for a loved one; there’s no doubt that Valentine’s Day has become a significant day in the UK calendar of celebrations. In terms of greeting card sales, it’s second only to Christmas.

The tradition of exchanging Valentine gifts is said to have originated in the later middle ages, when it was believed that the 14th February marks the beginning of the mating season for birds – thus the day became associated with love and romance.

There is some doubt about the identity of Saint Valentine and his association with Valentine’s Day. He might have been a Roman priest and Christian martyr, said to have been executed during the persecution inaugurated under Claudius II the Goth; however, there are claims that he might have been Valentine, Bishop of Turni, who was martyred in Rome.

On the 14th February many people will be declaring their love for each other by sending Valentine cards, chocolates, flowers and other gifts. Some will go for a meal, others might even wax lyrical with a little poetry, or pen a billet-doux to their beloved. In these times of emailing and texting I imagine the art of love-letter writing might be on the decline, which is a great pity. What better way to express your love than a personal message to the one who has stolen your heart? The British Library holds the oldest known Valentine’s message written in English – written in 1477 by Margery Brews to her fiancé John Paston. Here are some excerpts from her letter:

Right reverent and worshipful and my right well-beloved valentine, I recommend me unto you full heartedly, desiring to hear of your welfare, which I beseech Almighty God long for to preserve unto his pleasure and your hearts desire…….

For even if you had not half the livelihood that you have, for to do the greatest labour that any woman alive might, I would not forsake you……

My heart me bids evermore to love you truly over all earthly things…..

And I beseech you that this bill be not seen by any non earthly creature save only yourself.

Margery Brews could not have imagined that her very personal Valentine message would one day be available for the whole world to see. Margery and John had their happy ending and were married and had two children.

This Valentine’s Day, why not write the love of your life a letter, or send something personal and unique like a personalized Valentine’s card?

Guest post written by Angela Boothroyd from Studying Online – Online English lessons, for speakers of other languages.

You can follow Angela on twitter – www.twitter.com/studyingonline

Read Angela’s blog – Exploring the English language and how to use it

Image © Anita Hunt www.sendaflowercard.com

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Guest Blog: How everything has its place in nature and blogging

February 4, 2010 By 2 Comments
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I shall hold my hand up and admit that I don’t know the first thing about flowers, yet they are the things that connect Anita and myself :-) . Thank you flowers, am very grateful. I was thrilled that Anita invited me to write her a guest blog and then spent the next day wondering what it could be about!

Anita suggested blogging, so here it is :-)

In nature everything has it’s place, predators to prevent anyone species running amok and areas of complete beauty where you least expect it. Blogging for me is like that, predatory with unexpected beauty, but everything in it’s place.

A giant grouper at the Georgia Aquarium, seen ...
Image via Wikipedia

I shall explain the predatory part. The internet is used by trillions of people (is trillions even a number? if it’s not, it is now ;-) ) and some of them just help themselves to your copy, to your images, to your ideas.  Some people will give you credit, others will just pass it off as their own and some are just oblivious to the rules!

So many people start blogging and give up at the first sign of a predator or a perceived predator.

I recall doing so myself. I would visit a forum and there would be another company posting up links to their website, asking for the business and generally making a nuisance of themselves. I didn’t know that wasn’t the way to do things, I assumed mistakenly this was their pond and I was the unwelcome fish in it!

As Qui Gon Jin says “there’s always a bigger fish”.

You cannot avoid doing something because someone else is doing it already. Just because someone else is blogging on your subject, it doesn’t mean you can’t. We all have our own unique flavour, and even if people blog the same topics as I do, they will sound, look and feel different.

I set about finding my own pond and my own places of beauty, and in finding those, I found Anita :-) .

So what do a flower girl and a courier girl possibly have in common (aside from being brunettes with an aversion to having their photos taken?). We have friendship. We visit each others places of beauty and respect what we find. Many bloggers do that too. They visit your blog and look, and if they like they may do a few things

  • leave a comment
  • subscribe to your feed
  • subscribe by email
  • Share your work on Facebook / Twitter / Bt Tradespace
  • Social bookmark your post

And it’s your job to make it easier to do these things, it’s making your place of beauty accessible to others. Don’t think that a comment or 27 is the only indicator of it’s popularity, it’s not. Many petals go to make up a flower, many actions make up a blogs readership, some of which are not visible to the naked eye.

If you like this blog, do me a favour and tweet it.

Thank you

Sarah Arrow

Sarah Arrow works for the same day courier company Arrow Light Haulage, she is the most followed courier on twitter and also the editor of Birds on the Blog, the home to UK Business women bloggers.

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