Randon word Random Picture

Random Word

As I flick over the pages in my Dictionanaire what will I find?

What a boring word to land on, Normal. My dictionary gives examples such as, the temperature is normal for the season, and that it is normal to be tired at the end of the day. Well I find the darkness makes you think that you are tired and should be retreating to the duvet, roll on lighter nights!

I did something tonight which isn't normal, I made some biscuits. How mad is that, it probably costs four times more money than buying some in a posh packet. Why am I making biscuits? Tomorrow two French ladies are coming round for coffee and to chat with my friend and myself. I may be about to forget every single French word that I have ever stuffed into my memory. Help me!!!

Random Picture

Ha how funny when I opened my eyes the picture I was on is called Forgotten, is this an omen? I wonder why some people can remember things better than I can? The picture was taken down by the castle in Fougeres and I posted it in my blog many months back. Oubliette is a dungeon or place underground for holding prisoners, so you are most definitely forgotten about down in the castle dungeon!

The French word for posh is chic.

The French word for stuffed is farci......actually I feel stuffed because I had a lovely pizza for lunch!!

Etymology for Nosh.

PS. Have you done anything that is not the norm for you today?

I could not sleep last night

I made the mistake of using Stumble, and went through loads of blogs. Did I find a blog that I could connect with...no not really. I found weird but not wonderful. People living on a dollar and people who were tres chic.

I learnt something new too, if I understood wikipedia correctly at 3.30 am. I found a blog entry written by a man on his 64th birthday, he was in prison in America and he had been there for 30 years. And there were no further entries so I looked up information on the Internet he had been imprisoned for killing two FBI agents, but he has said that he is innocent. After his 64th birthday he was moved to another prison and then beaten up by inmates. What I also learnt was that if you are in prison you cannot always vote in the Presidential elections but you can run for President!

If you would rather see some chic here is a blog that I bookmarked last night. Our place looks more shabby than chic!

My picture today is called Walls, used to keep people out in this case, if it ever stops raining I may get outside myself.

I hope that you all had a restful sleep last night.

Walls

The French word for weird or strange is étrange.

The French word for detained is détenir.

Etymology for the word detained.

Still tagging along

Honest things about me continued.

5. Years back when I used to go dog training, I once dressed up as a dog. I didnt want my dogs to go to the Christmas Fancy Dress at the dog training classes looking like idiots. So instead I dressed up as a dog.

6. When attempting to take my driving test for the second time, I was turned away three times. I drove about six miles in bad weather only to be told the conditions were too bad for a test, so I had to go all the way back again! three times.

7. I rarely eat breakfast since it just wakes up my hungry monster and then I just want to eat and eat all day.

8. I used to spend all my school dinner money on chips, and other unhealthy items.

9. I didn't take any Maths exams at school ,because I was told that I was unteachable. My first job was in a bank, then I worked in the computer industry, and have done bookkeeping for several businesses and worked in an accountants. So I have never been far from the dreaded numbers.

10. I once got permission from the headmaster at school, with two of my school pals, to skive off school one Friday afternoon. We used to teach sailing on Friday nights and the head was a keen sailor so we gave him some cock and bull story about needed to go to the Sailing Club and he believed us!

Here is a rather nice Roller, no I didnt take my driving test in one, returning to our village last year followed by other vintage cars behind. The people along the roadside are actually there to cheer a big cycle race, which started and finished here too.

The French word for headmaster is directeur.
The French word for idiot is crétin...and you hear that a lot!

Tagged

Ten honest things about me continued....


3. I think I should be left handed.

Whilst playing the air guitar, haa haa I don't do this often I was informed that I was playing it the wrong way around, ie left handed. If I hold someones guitar I always hold it left handed too. In fact when the PC mouse first came about I couldn't get my right hand to move it where I wanted to so I tried with my left hand and had more success, after that my right hand could use the mouse too???

4. I have the map of the Greek island Crete upside down in my head, I could draw this map and show you where the towns are but it is as if I have a mirror inside my head.

Here is a picture with no connection at all, it is just that I am tired of all this rain and need to see some blue sky.

Pink and Blue

The French word for draw is dessiner

The French word for hold is tenir

Interesting?

Honest Scrap via French Fancy

Is your head so big that you think you are interesting? Well when I read earlier that French Fancy had dropped me in it, I thought oh no, she has tagged me and I am to tell you 10 honest and interesting things about myself. I scratch my head and think Interesting, I doubt it.

Ok well like a previous gauntlet I took from the Woolly Shepherd I will probably spread it out.

1. Last year when the ferry was approaching Poole harbour my phone went beep beep, so I knew it would say it was O2 network and welcome to the UK. Wrong, what it actually did say was that it was the O2 network and the calls would cost xx and Welcome to Iceland. Needless to say since MOH had gone in search of the boats facilities, I asked another passenger (jokingly since I good see the Dorset coast) what ferry I was on!!!!

Welcome to Iceland!..Not

2. I have a small collection of camels not the real ones of course, no please I don't want any more I have sufficient. One is a lovely pink plate which I bought from a charity shop in the UK, on the back it says The Edmund Leigh Gallery, Dromedary. Reproduced from antique plates 1854 - 1924 first Chairman of Burgess & Leigh Ltd Stoke-on-Trent England. I am also very fond of a lovely small brass camel which makes an excellent paperweight.

Dromedary

The French word for welcome is bienvenue.

The French word for brass is cuivre jaune.

Gone Fishing

Yes I am back at my French class, actually I go to two different ones. Anyway the more serious, difficult class where grammar really matters has given me a fishy problem. The problem is I have to fill in the ****, but I can understand the text without them. This is my main problem the leedle words in between.

The text is about a big ugly prehistoric fish that can be found in Indonesia, it isn't interested in us but it is a curiosity for man kind.

So here is the text, you see all those ** I have to put the right French word in!!

HORROR
** coelacanthe poisson préhistorique, a été pêche en Indonésie,** gros poisson n'est pas très curieux. Il est indifférent hommes, mais eux s'interésent hommes à lui, C'est ** très bonne nouvelle, explique Daniel Robineau, **. Muséum d'histoire naturelle, on croyait que poisson ne vivait qu' ** environs des Comores. Il reste peu de coelacanthes à ** endroit.



Here is a link that shows you this dinosaur fish.



Funny really because recently I have had a yearning for what is one of the UK's favorite meals, Fish and Chips, served fresh and hot and wrapped up in paper. I am an eater of fish but not meat, so no I am not a vegetarian.

Here is a picture taken down by the lovely castle in Fougeres, when I took this picture there was a man to my right fishing, so thats my picture for today.

Fishing for compliments

The French word for believe is croyait.
The French word for wrapped is emballer.
The French word for yearning is désir.

Etymology for desire.

PS. It is sad that many French people think that the British meal of fish and chips is disgusting, sadly it can be! But there is a lovely fish and chip shop just outside Poole in Dorset, and last time I got off the ferry and ate from there it was fab!

Mouse problems

A small creature, who appears to be rather cute but can cause trouble especially in the wintertime. Yes a lot of people in these old stone houses set in rural Brittany, Bretagne, suffer from this unwanted guest. The house mouse. Personally I think they may look cute but just prefer them to stay away.

At my French class on Thursday morning we were given a poem to memorise it is a French children's poem about Mice. Three of them in different colours. THRICE mice.

La Souris
C'est la petite souris grise,
Dans sa cachette elle est assise,
Quand elle n'est pas dans son trou,
C'est qu'elle galope partout.


So she is a little grey mouse, and she sits in her hideout, when she is not down her hole she is galloping everywhere!

C'est la petite souris blanche
Qui ronge le pain sur le planche,
Aussitôt qu'elle entend du bruit,
Dans sa maison elle s'enfuit.

So she is a little white mouse, and she gnaws the bread on a plank, as soon as she hears a noise she flees into the house.

C'est la petite souris brune
Qui se promène au clair de lune,
Si le chat miaule en dormant,
Elle se sauve prestement.

So she is a little brown mouse, and she walks in the moon light, when the cat meows it its sleep, she nimbly runs away.

Well that's what I think it means!

While we are on the small theme here is a lovely little French home with a lovely little door.

Cachette the hiding place.

Ronge the mouse gnawed the bread

Miaule the cat meowed in its sleep

Random Word...random Picture

Like before, I will choose a word at random from my Robert Junior dictionaire.

Ok which word do we have...généraliser, something that has become the norm or everyday. My little French dictionary uses the computer as the example. The usage of the computer is general. Well I cant argue with that one. I love having access to so much information at my fingertips, in fact I would find it really hard to learn French without all the information available on the internet.

Oh and by the way my keyboard on this laptop is going bald. I have been using keyboards on all types of computers for a very very long time and I never had a bald keyboard before.

Ok here is my random picture and I promise I wont cheat unless its a picture that I recently posted,.................. good heavens look what I have here, its the loopy dog. Thats what they call a grab shot, so while its not fantastic I caught a certain look that I recognise very well.

Loopy Dog

Actually it just so happens that I got a really nice shot of the mutt yesterday and that isnt easy since she doesnt keep still very often, so I may as well show you. She looks really special.

January Thoughts

Oh and don't ask me what she is thinking about, because she hasn't worked out how to use that huge brain in that big head yet!

The French word for loopy is dingue, and you hear that a lot.

The French word for computer is ordinateur

The French word for available is disponible.

Upside down world

In my opinion the world seems to have got itself into a bit of a muddle. Mankind should know better, however since the beginning of time tribes have killed and hated each other, you would think that by now that we could have found ways to live peacefully with our differences.

Obama doesn't have a magic wand but I really do hope that he can untangle some of the spaghetti that we have got ourselves into.

Yesterday I watched Obama give his speech on French TV, which was difficult since I could hear two languages at the same time English, and French, the spotlight was on an extraordinary man.

Shine on You

Black and White

Things have changed

The French word for hope is espérer.

The French word to wriggle out of or emerge is dégager.

The French word to tip upsidedown is basculer.......(and you hear that word a lot)

D is for Dog

The 19th of January, what is it like where you are? It has been howling a gale here and I awoke in the night thinking I was on a trawler. Over on A Curates Egg there is discussion about today being the most depressing day of the year.

I never did understand all that mathematical stuff, you see to me A is a letter. 2 is a number, simple eh. All that garbage they gave you to do at school, you know the one where they say if it takes 1 year for 8 men to do some small roadworks in France, then how long would it take for you to moan.

Well as it is supposed to be the bluest day of the year I will post a few blue pictures.

B is for Bubble

C is for Castle

S is for Sky

The French word for depressed is déprimé

The French word for trawler, you never know when it may come in handy is chalutier.

The French word for gale is tempete.......(there should be a chinamans hat over the second e but I need to go back and start Avisoft up.) ^

Etymology for the word blue.

The darker side of life

Small rant. In my opinion there is far too much violence shown on tv. Some nights it is hard to find something other than murder and then it can be two or three episodes shown back to back. To be honest often I am sat at the pc fiddle about with photos and I am not actually glued to the screen. But some nights especially if I am alone I find I have to take action and turn over or turn off.

I find that the cruelty that they re-enact is going further, I mean worse and worse. Most of the really violent programmes shown here are American although I guess that the French Flic programmes may spiral downwards too.

Is it just me who feels this way or am I a minority??

Dark Moods

The French word for darkness is noirceur.

The French word for cruelty is cruauté

The French word for dreadful is effroyable.

Etymolgy for macabre.

Keeping records and making plans

Blogs with pictures. I like keeping a log of my pictures, I load some onto Fickr, when the weather permits I can be taking photographs everyday. I marvel and wonder at the changes around us, things happen so fast.

Its cold here, a chill wind blows, the ground has thawed and the garden outside is squishy mud. But a flick through my pictures shows me that in no time at all we will be outside planting seeds and pulling weeds. So even though I am stuck indoors I can enjoy this time.

Six months ago, the foxgloves were still blooming , the passion flower was a mass of buds and my pretty pink rose was just that.

Passion Buds

Today I am looking back at photographic memories and it gives me hope that there are wonderful things to come, I could make some plans for my garden?

Of course there are lots of things that I don't photograph that need to be planned for, like paying the car insurance, and the French MOT or Control Technique!

The French word for bud is boutonner. Its a bit like the word button!

Etymology for the word button.

The French word for marvel is marveille.

Etymology for the word marvel.

Random Word...random Picture

Today I thought I would flick through my Dictionnaire Le Robert Junior and see what word I saw first. An everyday word formula or method Formule.


Actually I am quite into methods to keep me on track, getting the everyday stuff done as well as some research into a few projects that I have on the boil. In fact if I didn't have any methods or formulas to use, I might be reading your blogs all day!

So now I am going to do a random picture...I will close my eyes and move the cursor down whilst in browse, honestly I wont cheat unless it is a picture that I put on recently.

Where did I end up?.. In a picture called February Fields, we are nearly half way through January so not long to wait. I love the trees in the winter when you can see their silhouettes against the skyline, they make me all dreamy.

February Fields

The French for at random is au hazard.
The French word for something that is done everyday is quotidien.

The Yellow Peril

I wish that the postman turned up at exactly the same time every day.

Each morning I let my dog out into the garden, she charges off and chases away the blackbirds, well in fact any birds. I always hope that the yellow post van does not crunch the gravel on the drive way opposite. My dog will grow in size and bark ferociously.

If I am not dressed for the outdoors there is little that I can do to get her back inside until he has delivered the post to this side of the road too. Like a demented wild thing she will tear up and down the garden hedge as he arrives at our garden gate and pops the letters into our neighbours box.

What is it about postmen and dogs?

The picture below was taken last April, the yellow gorse is in flower, and if you look carefully you can see the postmans van.

Yellow Van

For some pictures of a well behaved German Shepherd go and visit Vagabond she has some delightful pictures of her dog in the snow.

The French word for van is caminonnette.

The French word for blackbird is merle.

The French word for wild is sauvage.

Coats

We are all obsessed here in Brittany about this cold snap. Who can stay the warmest, how many duvets can you sleep under. Who has had burst pipes, has your olive oil gone solid, has your Pastis frozen?

My friend has just acquired two young pigs and they were all cuddled up in their new little home and didn't want to venture out into the cold outside of their shelter. They were persuaded out with a jug of warm milk, lap lap lap.

So it makes me wonder how do the animals in the fields especially the big animals keep warm?

Some do not have shelters, and they probably don't have thick coats because mankind has possibly bred out the hairiest for reasons of convenience. They cannot creep down into burrows and get all snuggled up together, like the badgers and foxes, who after all have lovely thick coats.

I hope that you are nice and snuggly in your little nest, and if your heating has gone phut may it soon be repaired.

The French word for nest is Nid, (which sounds more like knee).
The French word for cuddle is Câlin.
The French word for a burst pipe or tyre is éclater

Stuff

I have been looking at the blogs that I like to visit, and discovered that many are blogs where people make things. Some knit and sew but I was never good at that. Others draw, paint, or carve. Of course there are a few who just amuse me by their funny comments or occasional rants.


So in a world that appears to be obsessed with "de cluttering" why do we still want stuff? Does it take some people years to find out what things they really like and in the meantime acquire all sorts of tat?

I am attracted to wood, glass, and paintings. I guess mankind has been adorning himself with paint, and beads for a very long time sticking feathers in hair, carving wood. Maybe we just need to fashion things out of things.


Here is some natural jewellery from the local forest its free to see, although this was back in August.

Pendant

Forest Jewels

Are you a magpie, or are your walls bare?

The French word for magpie is pie.

The French word for bare is dénudé.

Forbidden

A lot of Brits comment on how the UK has become a "Nanny State" the UK bends over backwards not to offend everyone, but in doing so dilutes many of its own traditions. I was very surprised when I visited a blog yesterday to see this message on a bus in England.

I have recently been reading that there is a campaign for The right to dry, in other words hang your washing out in your own garden. Blimey if it was warm enough I would love to hang out my washing today, but its just too cold.

This morning I have just read about people being asked to leave shopping malls in America because they took photographs of their family eating a meal, I didn't realise that you couldn't do that. So dont take photographs in enclosed shopping centres or the bouncers will get you!

It makes me realise that I don't want that kind of lifestyle and so I will stick to being a person who enjoys wandering around trees, rocks,and looking up at blue skies...I wish errmm what blue skies........and not much traffic.

PS there is a bus stop here, but I still haven't seen the bus, milk lorries, white vans, huge tractors, but where is that bus?

I see only tractors around here

PPS......Dont get me wrong France has a billion rules about things that you can and cannot do!

The French word for forbidden is interdit

The French word for clothes washing is lessivage.

Guilty Feelings

Today I should be back at my French class. But "the hip" which has been causing a temporary blip in my day to day life is still a bit dodgy.

So here are my excuses, 1 my hip still hurts, 2 the chairs are really uncomfortable, 3 the roads may be icy. They don't grit the rural roads here so they can be like a skating rink. 4 The pavement may be icy, so I may slip and fall. So forgive me teacher because I will not be in attendance.

"Stay at home and read a French newspaper" said my friend,yeah right, I know that I will be side tracked and do something else instead. I have the will power of a gnat. Makes me wonder how people like French Fancy knuckle down and do their studies.

So the car will remain in the garden parked on frozen grass, the ground is like concrete here at the moment. Here is a little chap who wanted a ride in my car last summer

Hitching a ride

Have you got any guilty feelings today?

The French word for guilty is culpabiliser

The French word for attendance is presence

Finding the unexpected

You know when you put your hand into a pocket of a coat that you haven't worn for ages and you find a small note in a pocket, in my case that would be 5 euros and you think that's great I'm rich. Well yesterday I thought that I would see if I could make a puddle picture or a plaque, that's a cross between a flaque and a puddle. Anyway I loaded a picture onto Flickr cropped and zoomed and tweeked it etc etc and what did I find?

A Bloomin Angel, how exciting is that, I just hope that she can get me back out to the forest soon, so I can find some more hidden treasures. Even better a friend of mine said that the angel is playing a violin!

Forest Angel

I hope you find some money in a pocket today, its much better than a crumpled up mouchoir.

The French word for unexpected is inattendu.

The French word for angel is ange

Retaliation and time on your hands

I lay awake last night thinking about someone I know who has to do Jury Service. I hope that it isn't some gory crime, with awful Exhibit A and Exhibit B, I wouldn't like that too much. Years back I was told that I would make a good juror since I try to see both sides of the story. Going to prison has to be even in this day and age a dreadful experience, so the responsibility of getting the verdict correct is a heavy one.

On a much lighter note I stumbled upon this blog and it amused me, just look at what this guy did here Retaliation. Talk about too much time on your hands!

The image below shows chains near the castle in Fougeres, you can see that my mind is working overtime here, chains have had cruel uses in the past. Imagine being kept in the dungeon at the castle.

Chains

No escape

The French word for revenge is revenche

The French word for the keep of the castle is donjon

Etymology for dungeon.

Etymology for revenge

The desperate photographer

Desperate to get outside but still stuck indoors, I grabbed an opportunity this morning as the frost melted on the inside of the bedroom window. Blue is the colour. Frost melts on the window giving a blu view.

Winter View

Desperation eh...any puddles outside will be frozen over for sure and snow is forecast for Monday.

For lovers of puddles out there here is a puddle picture I took in December.

Abstract PuddleDid you like splashing in puddles when you were a kid?

The French word for Splash is wait for it Plouf.

The French word for Abstract is Abstrait

I wonder what is going on in the forest?

Do you think the trees are missing having their photographs taken? I have always liked hanging about with trees. I may have said before that sometimes they even look like people or creatures.

Papillion

Monster

Strange Creature

A lovely blog here if you like to see things carved out of wood. Art Propelled.

Woodwose carving is a blog I found recently, there are some interesting looking fellas in his blog.

The French word for missing is manquer, which sounds a bit like MONKEY, but the word for monkey is singe, which sounds more like sange.

Cold and frosty

Yes I am house bound, my hip is hurting like mad and so I cannot get out to photograph. Damn I do so love to take photographs on a frosty morning. So I have indulged myself and started another blog. I know I shouldnt have but it gives me somewhere to dump my music links.

Here is a picture that I took almost a year ago when I first started to take photographs everyday. I quite liked the idea of peeking through the trees. I still like this kind of shot, although my photographs have changed a little. The pond belongs to a house that once was a Mill, it is situated down the lane from our village.

Further on up the hill I saw this beauty.

I think my pictures are different now but these two are special to me, because it was my new hobby. One of my pictures is on a CD cover, and I received a copy of it in the post this week it looks great.

The French word for frost is gel.

Getting on with life

New years resolutions? No not really? I prefer to think lets try harder to get on with things we know we have control over, so stop procrastinating. The world seems a little mad at at the moment, and we cannot change the bigger picture, but maybe the one on our doorstep.

I took this picture in December and I called it You are a Star, it seems to be in the spotlight, I must try and focus my efforts.

The French word for focus your attention is concentrer.

The roots for concentrate are Latin.

The French word for resolve is résourdre.

Resolution is a French word.

Here are some wise words and wonderful pictures, I can spend a lot of time wandering around this blog. Vagabond.