Gardening has always been part of my life ever since I was a little girl but I must admit that until recently, I was simply a spectator and the recipient of glorious produce, handed over to me without any effort on my part. As things are, there comes a time when one has to take over and adopt an active role. Not terribly enthusiastically at first as this added to my to do list already quite hefty. However, it didn’t take long to become something enjoyable and later a new passion and something to look forward to.  In this post. I will talk about some of the benefits that gardening brings to my life while providing vocabulary in context and pictures with some of the tools, produce and flowers in our garden.  

Continue reading “THE JOY OF GARDENING” →

1. KIWI

This little word rich in meanings.

Imagine that I say this: “There is a kiwi under the tree.”

Well, I could be referring to the fruit on the left, but if I were in New Zealand also to a native nocturnal flightless bird, and last but not least, I could be saying that there is someone from New Zealand under the tree, as this is also a nickname for New Zealanders. For the record, the nickname refers to the bird, not the fruit. It is not offensive, quite on the contrary New Zealanders are proud of it. 

Continue reading “10 very Kiwi words or phrases” →

BANGS

Bangs, used in the plural, are the equivalent of a fringe in British English. In other words, hair cut short over your forehead.

One of the theories regarding the origin of this word is the term “bang tail”, a way in which horsetails are cut.

“Her bangs give her a very stylish 1920s look”.

(UK) Fringe Continue reading “10 very American English words” →

When I first heard the word mish-mash, it was love at first sight.

We were sitting by the fire in the rustic living room of an old National Trust farmhouse located in a remote valley of the Peak District. A perfect end to a day of volunteering work in the morning, and an afternoon in the hills.

I was having a drink and chatting about languages with the international team. One of them (a fellow volunteer at the time and now a close friend) used the word mish-mash. It was clear from the context that she meant something like a jumble, a mixture of things. A pot-pourri. I asked her to repeat the word just to hear the sound of it in her beautiful British accent. Mish-mash! Love it. Continue reading “A mish-mash of some of my favourite reduplicatives” →