R.I.P. ... but not if I can help it

Words! Have you ever stopped to consider that each individual word has its own history? That it is born, lives and evolves and in some cases dies. No? - I hadn't either.

But recently, a good word died; a word that I think has relevance today. And I therefore think it should be resurrected. Littlest thinks we should give it a funeral - that was her unfeeling response to my bedtime story about this forgotten, unloved, innocent little word that was dropped carelessly and without thought from the dictionary.

Everyone should have a place as defined by this word. A place where tension can be released; where voice can be given noisily and in private to frustration.

So bring back the growlery - a place to growl in. I'm going to establish one at home. Four-legged-friend, being no respecter of dictionary bureaucrats, has one already; a virtual one that he carries around inside his head, but his human family need one too - garden shed, loo, cellar, car? If you see me growling you'll know why.

So littlest won't get her word funeral ... just yet.

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Colour, Delacroix, flochetage and why don't we all have a go at inventing words

Yes - it is a real word. Flochetage. Well, a real-ish word. One invented by the painter Delacroix, when he found the dictionary cupboard bare and required a word to describe his technique of layering different coloured paints, using lightly pulled brush strokes to create texture and pattern and thereby enhance his base-layer colours (... lost? - stick around, read on and all will become clear. Or perhaps muddier ...). Flochetage implies both stringiness and threadiness. Apparently. And it sounds good - in a filling-the-mouth-with-sound sort of a way. Try it ... flochetaaaage. Not that I speak French. So I am probably mis-pronouncing it. Nor am I an artist. So what do I know about painting techniques - except that I think this one works. What I do like is the concept - you invent a new technique in whatever it is you do, hunt around for the vocabulary to describe it, find the dictionary is lacking, so make up a word of your own and announce to the world what it means. Delacroix isn...

Curlews, summer skies and walking in circles.

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Heaven clearly can't wait. Ranting and screaming inside. Growing old and lecturing ... myself, mostly.

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Walking The Dog

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