What's outside

Thank you for that, Louis!

A relatively small and esoteric collection of words and etymologies for the word for butterfly in a few languages here as well-

1 Like

I understood that, in Cymraeg, ‘mouse’ is 'llygoden fach" which implies rats came first. However, the use of “llygoden fawr” for ‘rat’ casts doubt on that! The suggestion that rats are French mice could just be an insult or the result of ‘the Fench are coming to get you’ type threats to naughty children!!

I looked at this and noted that ‘summer bird’ seems to be Norse!! That might explain ‘iar bach yr haf’’. I didn’t notice anyone else using ‘living glow’, but may have missed it, and, to be fair, ‘psyche’ is sort of the same thing!! Jackie
p.s. Thinking about it, pili-pala is much the same as well!!

butterfly = metulj

in Slovene. I’m not sure if it sounds lovely to you or not …

Well, these photo’s have certainly led to unexpected and interesting dialog, long may it continue.
So now for some more photo’s, (i did take rather a lot of photo’s today as i escaped to the coast).

Creyer bach - Little egret.

Pibydd coesgoch - Redshank.

Cheers J.P.

3 Likes

Where are the rest then? You said you took lots and only posted two!! Hwyl, Jackie

Sorry Jackie, i spent time last night updating my blog with the walk and have 112 photo’s to sift and size to fit on here. (more than half will be binned).

It was a fantastic day and i must return when time allows, unfortunately work is going to be taking up quite a bit of the next two months. Birds like so many subjects are something i have a lot to learn about so i still have the joy of first time, often. yesterdays first time was a bit distant but i’m thrilled with the distant happy snap.

Cambig - Avocet.

Will get back to the task this evening.
Cheers J.P.

1 Like

German has “Schmetterling” (which I think also sounds nice), but isn’t this word also known in Dutch Louis (or a similar one)?

Pibydd coesgoch mannog - spotted redshank.

I’m starting to wonder how much welsh names relate to features of a species, here Pibydd seems to mean piper, maybe a reference to the beak and the noise it makes at times.

Chwiwell - wigeon. (Benywaidd a Gwrywaidd) - (Female and Male).

These really are chatterboxes when feeding across the marsh and constantly calling to each other, I could accept the (Chwi) part of their name equates reasonably with their calls.

I’ve not encountered such a word in Dutch, or in any of the Dutch dialects (even checked my old uni books on Dutch dialects). It is possible that something like it is used in an obscure village on the German border somewhere.

1 Like

Thanks Louis. I thought I had encountered it while attempting to pick my way through a Dutch novel many years ago, but I have probably become confused by my later study of German.

1 Like

Sorry Jackie, i spent time last night updating my blog
Sorry John!!! I didn’t mean my comment to sound so… well, rude!! It was meant as a teasing quip, not a criticism or an order!! I am very, very grateful for your wonderful pics, especially of creatures & plants that I don’t see here, which remind me of home!! The same goes for everyone who posts pictures!!
Hwyl, Jackie

No problem at all Jackie, i took it as a teasing quip and thank you for your interest.

Corhwyaden - Teal.
Irony in that the ones not asleep were bad photo’s.

Cornchwiglen a Chwiwell - Lapwing and wigeon in the background.

Cheers J.P.

2 Likes

Gwylan y penwaig - Herring gull.

Hwyaden lostfain - Pintail.

Cheers J.P.

1 Like

Bras y cyrs - Reed bunting.

Cheers J.P.

3 Likes

Diffyg ar yr haul. - Solar eclipse.
For anyone interested there should be a rather good (partial) solar eclipse view-able from Wales/England and better in Scotland or further north on the morning of March the 20th. Now what are the chances of a clear sky allowing for a view/photo. (Remember don’t look directly at the sun).

Later in the year, 28th September (Diffyg ar yr lleuad - lunar eclipse).

Cheers J.P.

Ooh, partial eclipses are fun! When the sun is a crescent, all the shadows of leaves and other small things become crescents too. Really rather cool looking!

Isn’t physics great? :sunny:

4 Likes

Well i have to admit that it is great and a great mystery still,
i also have to say that for me trying to understand the chemistry of evolution
is mind straining enough.
Anyway, one month and the eclipse will be bore fory.

Gwyddau aifft - Egyptian geese. (direct translation).

I don’t know that any of these have reached Wales yet, but they seem to be happily increasing in numbers and spreading across the country.

Cheers J.P.

3 Likes

Pioden - Magpie (click on image to enlarge).

It’s been some time (and many failures) trying to get a reasonable image of this species which are rather nervous of getting near people and the Jay is proving nigh impossible.

Cheers J.P.
For anyone who is interested, i’m not a great photographer and am using a bridge camera, i don’t have any image processing software, it’s just a question of wait for opportunities and take many images hoping one will be ok. These images are cropped in size and saved as Jpeg’s to get the file size down to a level the forum software will accept.

3 Likes