Flowers, words, and a gift for Louie

Irises

Yesterday, I snapped a couple of pictures of flowers growing behind the Crown Center when I took Clawdia out to walk in the grass and listen to the birds.  She chose to plop down near these multi-colored irises in the middle of our grassy area.

These purple irises are also growing around the sculpture located in the middle of our curving paths.  While in the gardening area with Clawdia, I saw a bird swoop down to an air conditioning unit in my building and disappear inside.  For days, I've watched a bird make a smooth, looping approach to one of the units in the building across from my windows.  It slips between the vents to the inside of the unit while landing.  But that looks impossible.  I decided a mama bird must have built a nest inside there.  Maybe she's bringing food to her chicks, or maybe it's the daddy bird feeding her as she sits on the eggs.  Who knew that birds could do such a tricky thing as flying or landing between vent slats?

Gift for Louie

Speaking of birds, I took a gift to Sandy's Louie this afternoon.  In cleaning out, I came across this colorful, lightweight (maybe balsa wood?) toucan souvenir someone apparently saved from a trip to Costa Rica.  It's about three inches tall, and the beak

measures about an inch and a half.  Clawdia is curious about it, but I'm not giving it to her.  Sandy told me she put the little toucan near Louie's cage.  Here's a recent photo Sandy took of Louie.

Word of the Day #1

souvenir / sou·ve·nir /ˌso͞ovəˈnir / noun (from French, for remembrance) = a thing that is kept as a reminder of a person, place, or event.  In other words, it's a memento or keepsake.
Example:  "I gave Louie that little toucan souvenir from Costa Rica."

Word of the Day #2

cancel / can·cel / ˈkansəl / verb = decide or announce something (like a planned event) that will not take place.

The writer of that poster needs the past tense, so what's the correct spelling?  Grammarly says:

Canceled or cancelled is the past tense of the verb to cancel.  Both spellings are correct; Americans favor canceled (one L), while cancelled (two Ls) is preferred in British English and other dialects.  However, there is only one correct spelling of the word cancellation, no matter where you are.  Mr. Webster decided to chop the past tense of "cancel" down to one L.  This variation first showed up in the Webster’s 1898 Dictionary, though it didn’t fully beat out the double-L spelling until about the 1980s.

So here in the USA, the poster should say:  "The National Spelling Bee has been canceled."  I thought it would be two Ls.  To be sure, I looked it up.  If the double-L spelling lasted into the 1980s, that explains why the double-L spelling still looks correct to me.  I was born in 1940, so I have probably spelled it "cancelled" for decades.  Our words evolve constantly, and dictionaries are quickly out of date.

Gift for Bonnie

Sharon in the Café, "long ago"

Fifteen minutes after posting this, I got a text from Sharon, who lives at the other end of my hall.  Yes, the very same Sharon who is one of Clawdia's very best friends:

"Corn on the cob still warm outside your door."

She was almost to the other end of my hall when I got to the door, but she came back halfway when Clawdia hurried out of our apartment, having heard her buddy talking to me.  Clawdia got her little bit of loving, and I bustled her into our apartment so I could snarf down my gift of corn on the cob.  It was the moistest corn I've had in years.  Do you suppose lockdown is making us see (and taste) things in a new and more appreciative way?

Word of the Day #3

snarf / snärf / verb / informal, North American = to eat or drink quickly or greedily.  Example:  "Yes, it's true that I snarfed down that corn on the cob."

More Words Today

Since Sharon is a translator, I asked her later if the information I found online about the French origin of souvenir (Word of the Day #1 above) is correct.  She told me that je me souviens is the Quebequois way of saying, "I remember" and that the verb souvenir means "to remember."  We were conversing in messages, so I looked up Quebequois and learned that it's the form of French spoken in Quebec.  Okay, this is about all the learning I feel up to today, so I'm going to bed.  G'nite.  (That's a contraction of "good night," but you knew that, didn't you?)

Thursday o'clock

Like in this clock I found on Facebook, my days all run together.  Today is no longer Sunday o'clock, but Thursday o'clock.

Someone commented on a book blog last week:

"I think it is funny to read books written in the 40s and 50s.  Life was so different then."

Having been born in 1940 and lived through BOTH of those decades, I find that rather droll.  Looking back at 2020, at least to the early weeks of this year, we can say, "Life was so different then."  Can you relate to what I'm saying?  Life has changed drastically in a short time.

Word of the Day

DROLL /drōl/ curious or unusual in a way that provokes dry amusement.  Example:  "I find that rather droll."

Sandy shared another picture of Louie today, and it's a cheery break in the awful news we get every day.  Hi, Louie!

Hunkered down ~ and fidgety

Clawdia in bed with me during the night.  She looks "hunkered down," doesn't she?  She seems very fidgety (my word of the day, meaning "restless or uneasy").  Aren't we all, right now?  Another word of the day (or week? or month?) for me would be ....

hunkered down = to make yourself comfortable in a place or situation, or to prepare to stay in a place or position for a long time, usually in order to achieve something or for protection.

First, they decided we'd could no longer eat together, so we would pick up our already packaged meals.  Today, they are calling everyone to say our meals will all be delivered to our doors.  So now they don't even want us to line up together.  Today's dinner "will be delivered around noon," but it was almost 2:00 pm when mine arrived.  I've had phone calls and emails and messages on Facebook, as we try to keep tabs on each other in my retirement center.

Here's the question:  How does Clawdia know something is "wrong" with the world?  Not only does SHE seem tuned into the anxiety all around, but so does Louie, Sandy's bird.  Louie is also restless and disturbed.

Two pets ~ on TWOsday

Louie entertains Sandy by doing things like trying on the "helmet" she hung inside his cage.  Sunday morning it snowed in St. Louis, and Sandy says Louie got all excited about seeing his first snowfall.  Her guess is that he thought a lot of white birds had flown into town.

I have one happy kitty here.  She's sitting on the red wrapping paper I took off a book I got for Christmas.  She stepped gently on it, gave me a searching look (like, is it okay?), and curled up on it when I told her she could have it.  I would unfold it better, except I'm afraid she'd take it as criticism and run away.  First, she groomed herself, but now she's simply sitting there, staring off toward the bookcase near the kitchen, very content, very sit-on-crinkly-paper happy.  Best Christmas gift ever!

I posted those words before I had a picture to share, saying I'd come back when I had enough light to photograph Clawdia.  So this was taken hours later, and she's been very happy sleeping and sitting on the paper all day Wednesday.  What a fun thing to have, this papery red thing!

Bits and pieces

Donna had completed this Bananagram on her coffee table a few weeks ago, and I tried to save it.  As you can see, the photo is rather fuzzy.  She and other word-loving neighbors play Bananagrams on Saturdays, so I could try again this evening.

Here's Sandy's little Louie, perched near the top of his ladder.  Donna was bird-sitting in September and invited me over to share a pizza she had ordered.  When Louie wasn't talking to himself in his tiny mirror, he spent his time arguing with the newscasters while we ate.

Though it may look like Clawdia, this is actually just some random cat from the internet.  But those eyes!  I wonder what she was seeing ... or imagining.  Maybe I should wonder, instead, what words someone said.  Could one of the words have been "vet"?