Wondrous Words Wednesday 11/4/12

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a fabulous weekly meme hosted by Bermuda Onion, where we share new (to us) words that we’ve encountered in our weekly reading.  

My words this week are from My Side of the Mountain. 

1. Junco (Noun)

2. Nuthatch (Noun)

The juncos and chickadees and nuthatches were gone. 

Clearly, both were birds, but I'd never heard of either of them. 

Junco is a small North American finch, usually having a pink bill, ashy gray head and back, and conspicuous white lateral tail feathers. 

Such an attractive little bird

Nuthatches are a small songbird with a long strong bill, a stiffened square-cut tail, and the habit of climbing down tree trunks head first. 

An even more attractive bird

3. Riffles (Noun)

The heads of riffles, small rapids, the tail of a pool, eddies below rocks or logs, deep undercut banks, in the shade of overhanging bushes- all are very likely places to fish. 

i) A rocky shoal or sandbar lying just below the surface of a waterway

ii) A stretch of choppy water caused by such a shoal or a sandbar; a rapid.

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It has another use in mining, but an even better usage as the act of shuffling cards.

4. Ox bow (Noun)

We didn't get back until dusk because I discovered some wild rice in an ox bow of the stream. 

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5. Puffballs (Noun)

I soaked some dried puffballs in water, and when they were big and moist, I fried them with wild onions and skimpy old wild carrots and stuffed myself until I felt kindly toward all men. 

i) Any of various fungi of the genus Lycoperdon and related genera, having a ball-shaped fruiting body that when pressed or struck releases the enclosed spores in puffs of dust.

ii) Informal. The rounded head of a dandelion that has gone to seed. 

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Painted Love Letters

I was excited to find this book at a used book sale a few weeks ago. It became the first book that I dipped into from my Big Fat Book Haul. 

I came across Catherine Bateson last year when I read the wonderful Rain May and Captain Daniel. She has won the Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year for Younger Readers twice since 2003, and had a showing with an Honour Book or Notable Book in most other years! That's a rather extroadinary achievement. And makes me even more curious about Catherine and want to read her books. 

Painted Love Letters is one of her early books from 2002. Chrissie is a teenager, trying to fit in at high school even though her artist parents keep moving, and she needs to change schools. It's Queensland in the 70s we suspect- at least I hope so, given her fashion choices.

Chrissie's dad Dave is dying. He gets diagnosed with lung cancer early in the book. And the inevitable happens over much of the rest of this little morsel of a read. At only 93 pages it's a compelling, quick read. 

Each day my body gives up a little more, so it becomes a little closer and I can feel another little piece of this life slipping off me, slipping away. My body is teaching me how to leave. 

There are interesting references to Father Damien and his leper colony in Kalaupapa. It didn't sound a particularly Australian name, and I wondered where it was. Turns out it's not Australian at all, but Hawaiian.

Who Explored Australia? Blaxland, Lawson, Wentworth, Evans and Strzelecki

Like everyone else who was ever an Australian school girl I remember teachers trying to teach me about Australian explorers. Of course I've forgotten most of the details. Sure we all remember their names, they're famous names, and I think lots of people remember that the first crossing of the Blue Mountains by white settlers was in 1813. But do we remember, details about their lives, or explorations? I know I didn't.

I chanced upon this book at my local library. Actually there are 4 in the series, and I'll be interested to have a look at them all eventually. 

This book focuses on the Blue Mountains of New South Wales. Part of the Great Dividing Range of Eastern Australia, the Blue Mountains has some quite rugged terrain and formed a barrie to westward exploration after the English settlement of Sydney in 1788. It is made illustrated with old maps of the Sydney Basin. This one by William Dawes, a marine on the First Fleet. I work with one of his descendents which adds to the interest. 

Gregory Blaxland, William Wentworth and William Lawson eventually famously crossed the Blue Mountains in 1813. Their names are memorialised in three of the townships of the Blue Mountains. I hadn't remembered anything else about them from my primary school days. 

It turns out that Blaxland wanted to cross the Blue Mountains to have more grazing land for his cattle- although I really think that the Sydney Basin should have been big enough! He was also the first successful  winemaker in Australia. He was apparently unpopular with "figures of authority". I'm not sure what that means, but am sure that its an interesting back story.

William Lawson became one of Australia's largest landholders after he was given a grant of 1000 acres as a reward for surveying land beyond the Blue Mountains. He became the Commander of Bathurst in 1819. Bathurst was the first inland settlement established in Australia. I drive through Bathurst many times every year, and didn't know that!

William Wentworth was fascinating too. The illegitimate son of a surgeon and a convict, apart from becoming an explorer, he also wrote the first book to be published by an Australian- the impressively titled A Statistical, Historical, and Political Description of the Colony of New South Wales. He went on to become a member of the Legislative Council and founded The Australian. A weekend copy of which graces my table as I type. 

I've occasionally pondered why our highest mountain has a distinctively Polish name. It is nearly impossible to spell after all. Here is the answer. Paul (Pawel) Strzelecki was a Polish adventurer, explorer and social reformer who travelled the world exploring for minerals. He is credited with being the first European to climb Mt Kosciuszko in 1840, which he then named after Polish national hero and American Revolutionary War General, Tadeusz Kosciuszko. In turn, Strzelecki's name was given to the Strzelecki Track and Strzelecki Desert of Central Australia by Charles Sturt. Strzelecki was only in Australia for 4 years, but he certainly left an enduring mark. 

I'm looking forward to checking out the other titles of the series. I'm not a great reader of nonfiction, and these Junior Nonfiction books are perfect for me to whet my appetite for knowledge. I'm sure kids would enjoy them too. 

Earth Hour 2012

Earth Hour is a wonderful concept. An idea started in Sydney in 2007, it has now spread to be a world wide phenomenon. An annual chance to spend an hour with the electricity and lights off, to remind ourselves to conserve energy for the rest of the year.

My son and I have been doing Earth Hour since it started. He really enjoys it each year- the candles being part of the novelty and part of the fun for a child.

Enjoying the candles Earth Hour 2011

This year, he wrote some poems. He doesn't usually write poems. But I think they're pretty good.


The wax burnt
by the dance of the flickering flame
but it was as if it weren't
anything more than a shame


The flames danced
without care for the world
the flames pranced
looking for a world where candles are held.


Saturday Snapshot, is a wonderful weekly meme from at home with books

Wondrous Words Wednesday 4/4/12

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a fabulous weekly meme hosted by Bermuda Onion, where we share new (to us) words that we’ve encountered in our weekly reading.  

Again proving that new words can come from anywhere. Recently on a trip to Sydney we were passing the time in the car using the Family Quiz Book. 

1. Drey (Noun)

What is a squirrel's nest called?


Clearly the answer is drey. I had never given any thought as to where squirrels might live. Not unsurprising, given that we don't have squirrels in Australia. Although I do love seeing them whilst on holidays. Trying to guess this in the car was actually quite hilarious. Even when given the D-R-E we had no idea what the word was, and nearly went through the alphabet trying all combinations for the final letter. I hope I shan't forget drey before I have a chance to use it sometime. 

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2. Eyrie (Noun)


Which large bird builds an eyrie as a nest?


We needed help with the answer to this one too....


i) The nest of an eagle or another bird of prey, built in a high inaccessible place.
ii) The brood of a bird of prey, especially an eagle. 
iii) Any high isolated position or place. The Free Dictionary. 


I'm moderately sure that I've heard of the broader definition used there, but clearly hadn't come across the more eagle specific usage, although I immediately knew what was meant. 

Reading my friend's blog I came across this

3. Espundia (Noun)


Is a term for mucocutaneous (mucous membranes ie mouth and nose; and skin) leishmaniasis. A nasty disease caused by protozoan parasites (Leishmania) transmitted by sandfly bites, that erupts weeks to months after the bite.  That is the cutaneous form, which may progress into the three other forms
 i) mucocutaneous  ie espundia
ii) diffuse cutaneous
iii) visceral (affecting the internal organs), the beloved kala-azar remembered by every medical student as a cause of massive splenomegaly (enlarged spleen). Typically it's the first cause that they remember too.


Google pictures if you want to, but be warned it's gross. I knew I hated sandflies. Now I hate them that little bit more. 

Zazie in the Metro

Well this book wasn't what I expected at all!

I really, really didn't like it. I was expecting to love it. Set in Paris, a French classic. It has instant appeal to me for those reasons alone. But that's all it had going for it in the end for me. The locations. Visiting the Eiffel Tower. Trying to get to Sainte Chappelle before it closed. Even Pigalle. And that got me to the end. I think if it hadn't been one of my 1001 reads, I would have given up and it would languish on the shelf partly read forever. 

I did struggle with the book on many levels. Firstly I have no idea how it can be described as a children's book. I don't think it is. I'm not sure it's even YA. I'm not actually sure who it appeals to. 

I realise that I seem to be in the minority. It was a huge success in France as soon as it was published, selling 50,000 in the first month, and a million since. It came in at #36 of Le Monde's Top 100 Books of the 20th Century. It was turned into a popular film within a year. It rates 4 stars on goodreads- 995 people have rated it for an average of 3.81. Clearly most everyone else "gets it" in a way I don't. And that's fine, but I do wish I'd liked it more. I expected to like it more. I expected to love it. This paragraph resonated with me as a summary of my feelings.

Zazie kept her trap shut. Events had got beyond her, she was overcome by somnolence, and she was trying to find an attitude which would be adequate, both to the situation and to her personal dignity, but she couldn't make it. 

After all the concept had such promise. The book tells the story of Zazie Lalochere, a girl from a provincial village who goes to Paris to stay with her uncle Gabriel, a female impersonator in a gay night club. Zazie is shipped off to the capital for 36 hours so that her mother Jeanne can spend some time with her lover. What's not to love about that? 

And the first page had me snorting out loud

'Hear that?' said the good lady to a little chap by her side, probably the one legally entitled to mount her.

But that was to be the last time that I found such mirth. The story was lost in the delivery for me. Even the introduction in my Penguin edition says 

What is Zazie in the Metro about? Not much really.

I didn't really get to know or understand Zazie. I found her annoying and stupid. 

I love learning new words in books but I found it so hard to differentiate between the incessant flow of neologisms and just words I didn't know. Some where obvious. Howcanaystinksotho. Others less so. Subtricate.  Inclitic urb. Although not all were unsuccessful, like noctivagrant miscreant. I love a bit of word play on the whole, but this was all a bit much even for me. 

I can see why it is labelled controversial. I find it controversial now, and I'm sure it must have been more so in 1959.

And what of the title? Zazie in the Metro. Zazie dans le Metro in the original French. Zazie doesn't actually get in the Metro really because of a strike. Well, she gets carried through asleep at the end. What does it all mean? I don't know.

I haven't been so disappointed in a book for some time. Mind you I am still glad to have read it. It was set in Paris after all. I found it fascinating to learn about Raymond Queneau, the author, described repeatedly in the introduction as a polymath. Queneau was a co-founder of an experimental writing group called Oulipo. Italo Calvino and Georges Perec are two of the most famous members, even though both have been dead since the 1980s, membership continues after you die. Which makes me worry. I've tried and failed to read Calvino. I've long had Perec's Life: A User's Manual on the TBR without knowing all that much about it. Experimental fiction isn't my thing, I know that. And my experience of Zazie suffered because of it.

Funny Face

A friend and I are (slowly, too slowly) working our way through all of Audrey Hepburn's oevre. Last year we watched Breakfast at Tiffanys. Oh dear, it was over a year ago! We'll have to step up the pace....

Last night we watched Funny Face (1957). A movie that neither of us really knew anything about. We picked it as it was short (99 minutes) and Audrey was wearing a killer suit and hat on the back cover. Sadly it only made a brief appearance in the film, but I discovered that Hepburn formed a lasting relationship, and personal friendship with Hubert de Givenchy starting with Sabrina in 1954. Miss Hepburn's Paris Wardrobe got it's own credit at the start- naturally it was by Givenchy.

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Paris was an unexpected but delightful character in Funny Face. Audrey Hepburn plays Jo Stockton who is discovered as the face of Quality Magazine whilst working in an intellectual, philosophical bookshop (Embryo Concepts) in Grenwich Village, New York. She is whisked away to Paris to showcase Givenchy's designs and Paris itself. Audrey and her major costars- Fred Astaire and Kay Thompson all burst into song on arriving in Paris. A response I can fully understand.

But I was quite astonished how dark and dirty Paris looked! Her iconic buildings are grimy. The Opera Garnier and the Statue of Joan of Arc are not shiny with gilt. She has clearly been cleaned up in the intervening decades, and looks the better for it I think.

Most of the locations are instantly recognisable to anyone who is familiar with Paris. Opera Garnier. The Winged Victory of Samothrace- I shall think of Audrey in that stunning red dress next visit, when I'm on those very stairs with 460 other people.

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The Eiffel Tower of course. Arc du Triomphe, and the Arc du Triomphe du Carrousel. One location had me stumped. A lovely little chateau, that forms a backdrop for the final scene. Naturally enough someone has done all the detective work for me. It is the Chateau de la Reine Blanche in the Coye-la-Foret, north of Paris, near Chantilly. A day trip to Chantilly is on the cards for the next visit to Paris actually, so you never know, I might visit here too.

Another discomforting aspect was the 30 year age difference between the major stars. Hepburn's Jo, is a sweet young ingenue, is courted by Fred Astaire's photographer Dick Avery. Hepburn here is 28, Astaire 58. The third main star was also a surprise to me, Kay Thompson, more famous to me for writing her series of Eloise books, it was great to see in action as the editor of Quality magazine, a fashion editor ruling things long before Anna Wintour and any devils wearing Prada.

The story itself is all a bit silly, but it was a great backdrop to a lovely evening. Homemade pumpkin soup. A bottle of Moscato. And some Fancypants Magic Bars. Lots of laughs. Great stuff.