Starry Sky-ed Marquee

A few words to describe the wedding at the weekend...

~ beautiful ~ sparkling ~ pink ~ quiet ~
~ holy ~ moving ~ emotional ~ funny ~ unique ~ heartfelt ~
~ blue ~ well-organised ~ joyful ~ thankful ~ sunny ~ light ~
~ loud ~ story-ful* ~ musical ~


*not a real word but I think weddings should totally be about the stories - the past, the journey, the stories that are to come.

The Happiness Files

This is a new topic for my blog, but something I've been thinking about for quite a long time. This week I was inspired to start writing about it by two things.

Firstly, I saw this on PostSecret:


And secondly, I saw this quotation*:


So this week I wrote about a few little things that made me happy. And I would love to know some of your thoughts.

Do you agree with the PostSecret card and the quotation? What does happiness mean to you?

Nostalgia and Something Pretty

I stumbled across The Jumblies by Edward Lear the other day. This poem reminds me of my mum - I remember her reciting bits of it, and reading it to me when I was younger.

I

They went to sea in a Sieve, they did,
In a Sieve they went to sea:
In spite of all their friends could say,
On a winter's morn, on a stormy day,
In a Sieve they went to sea!
And when the Sieve turned round and round,
And every one cried, 'You'll all be drowned!'
They called aloud, 'Our Sieve ain't big,
But we don't care a button! we don't care a fig!
In a Sieve we'll go to sea!'
Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
And they went to sea in a Sieve.


II

They sailed away in a Sieve, they did,
In a Sieve they sailed so fast,
With only a beautiful pea-green veil
Tied with a riband by way of a sail,
To a small tobacco-pipe mast;
And every one said, who saw them go,
'O won't they be soon upset, you know!
For the sky is dark, and the voyage is long,
And happen what may, it's extremely wrong
In a Sieve to sail so fast!'
Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
And they went to sea in a Sieve.


III

The water it soon came in, it did,
The water it soon came in;
So to keep them dry, they wrapped their feet
In a pinky paper all folded neat,
And they fastened it down with a pin.
And they passed the night in a crockery-jar,
And each of them said, 'How wise we are!
Though the sky be dark, and the voyage be long,
Yet we never can think we were rash or wrong,
While round in our Sieve we spin!'
Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
And they went to sea in a Sieve.


IV

And all night long they sailed away;
And when the sun went down,
They whistled and warbled a moony song
To the echoing sound of a coppery gong,
In the shade of the mountains brown.
'O Timballo! How happy we are,
When we live in a Sieve and a crockery-jar,
And all night long in the moonlight pale,
We sail away with a pea-green sail,
In the shade of the mountains brown!'
Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
And they went to sea in a Sieve.


V

They sailed to the Western Sea, they did,
To a land all covered with trees,
And they bought an Owl, and a useful Cart,
And a pound of Rice, and a Cranberry Tart,
And a hive of silvery Bees.
And they bought a Pig, and some green Jack-daws,
And a lovely Monkey with lollipop paws,
And forty bottles of Ring-Bo-Ree,
And no end of Stilton Cheese.
Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
And they went to sea in a Sieve.


VI

And in twenty years they all came back,
In twenty years or more,
And every one said, 'How tall they've grown!
For they've been to the Lakes, and the Torrible Zone,
And the hills of the Chankly Bore!'
And they drank their health, and gave them a feast
Of dumplings made of beautiful yeast;
And every one said, 'If we only live,
We too will go to sea in a Sieve,---
To the hills of the Chankly Bore!'
Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
And they went to sea in a Sieve.

I also came across these beauties the other day. They're made by an artist called Anastassia Elias. They must take so much time and carefully cutting.

{Market}


{Grandmother}

Words

I heard on the radio the other day that thesaurus means "treasure house" in ancient Greek. I'm not sure how linguistically true that is but it got me thinking about some of the words I love.

Some of my favourite words at the moment...
- Superfluous - Because it just sounds beautiful, like hot, thick custard.
- Anatidaephobia - Because it means "The fear that somewhere, somehow a duck is watching you."*
- Scrimshanker - Because it means someone who skives work or responsibilities but it is so much more formidable sounding.

A few years ago I was given a book called The Meaning of Tingo which is all about "extraordinary words from around the world". It contains gems like...
- Rainen no kono hi mo issho ni waratteiyoh - which is allegedly one of Japan's most successful chat-up lines. It means "this time next year let's be laughing together".
...and I love the things that other languages have words for...
- tallabe - (Zarma, Nigeria) to carry things on one's head without holding on to them
- gagrom - (Boro, India) to search for a thing below water by trampling

Despite being terrible at learning other languages this book is great for giving you a glimpse at how rich languages are. This makes me think of God - he created humans with the imagination and intellect to come up with hundreds of different ways of communicating. Between each language there is so much variation and creativity. How much more creative must God be? And how many ways does he communicate with us? I'm sure I miss so much that God tries to tell me - and I'm so thankful that when I don't get it the first time (or second, third, fourteenth times) he doesn't give up. He just uses different words.

*Okay, maybe its not a real word (it comes from a Far Side strip from ages ago) but the concept is great.