Quote for the day…..by Sydney Smith

“It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do a little. Do what you can.”- Sydney Smith

 

On our European vacation to The Netherlands we went to this charming Dutch village named Zaanse Schanse. I saw a wild kitty roaming about looking half starved so I tried to find food for her, but of course, the shops there only had food for people. After my hunting expedition, I went back to where I’d last seen her and she was in the tall grass, playing with bugs. I waited for her natural curiosity to overcome her fear of strangers and petted her for awhile. At least she felt a warm hand on her back while I stroked her soft fur before saying goodbye.

Happy World Environment Day!

HAPPY WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY!!!

Love the Earth, she’s the only planet we have!

Word for the day…a puzzling collection

Word puzzler for the day ……………….
a lively person, a short legged hen and an eel, what do they all have in common?

They are all also known as “grigs”!
Etymology: 1350–1400; Middle English grig, grege, dwarf

Word for the day….The Color Purple (And I’m not talking about the movie!)

I found these two beauties on Word Dynamo, a favorite word website. This test was about various cool names for colors, and as purple is my favorite color, I thought I’d share a couple. First, solferino is a vivid purplish pink.

Also, aubergine is the name for a very dark purple. Curiously enough, the etymology of the word explains it all…[French, from Catalan albergina, from Arabic al-binjn (the eggplant), from Persian bdenjn, bdengn.]

Feel free to share your recent word treasures on this thread!

Tuesdays Misused or Myth-understood word: wheelbarrow

Tuesday’s Misused or Myth-understood word is… the commonplace wheelbarrow, which many people misspell as wheelbarrel.

Definition and origins: “A wheelbarrow is a small hand-propelled vehicle, usually with just one wheel, designed to be pushed and guided by a single person using two handles at the rear, or by a sail to push the ancient wheelbarrow by wind. The term “wheelbarrow” is made of two words: “wheel” and “barrow.” “Barrow” is a derivation of the Old English “bearwe” which was a device used for carrying loads.”

Source cited: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheelbarrow

Enjoy, and share your own Wordy findings with us today!

The Healing Power of Pets (video)

Here’s a heartwarming video about the power of animals in the healing process: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/4-heart-warming-examples-of-the-healing-power-of-animals-video.html

Word for the day…oh “precious one”

I ran into this word in an ad for radio show guests, and just couldn’t resist sharing it with you….

“Rinpoche or Rinboqê is an honorific used in Tibetan Buddhism. It literally means “precious one,” and is used to address or describe Tibetan lamas and other high-ranking or respected teachers. This honor is generally bestowed on reincarnated lamas, or Tulkus, by default. In other cases it is earned over time, and often bestowed spontaneously by the teacher’s students.”

Source cited: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rinpoche

The Earth is our Mother, we all live on Her!

Earth from space, ain’t she beautiful?

A bit of the history of Earth Day from our friends at Care2.com: “Unlike the first Earth Day in 1970, the 20th anniversary in 1990 became a huge event thanks in part to greater television and radio coverage and a multimillion dollar budget. More than 200 million people in 141 countries participated helping to lift environmental issues onto the world stage. Earth Day 1990 helped pave the way for the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.”

May your joys be many,
may you soak in the light,
may the flowers in your garden bloom,
sweet and bright.

Happy Earth Day!
Diane T. and furfamily

Words for the day…all the colors of the rainbow bridge

Gold bars

It’s HEAVY METAL DAY…..my new words for today came from Word Dynamo, a great word site where you can take tests to learn new words. These were all a welcome addition to my writer’s vocabulary:

aeneous means bronze colored
ferruginous means the color of iron rust
or means the tincture or metal of gold
xanthous also means yellow!

Please feel free to share your new word, favorite word or weird word on this thread today!

31 Days of Notable Women- Marilyn Diaz, first female cop in Pasadena CA!

When Marilyn Diaz joined the Pasadena Police Department in 1974, she had to change into her uniform in the bathroom. There was no women’s locker room — because she was the department’s first female patrol officer. In March 2006, she was sworn in as chief of the Sierra Madre Police Department, becoming the first woman to head a city police department in Los Angeles County and one of fewer than a dozen female chiefs of municipal departments in California.

Source: http://articles.latimes.com/2006/mar/28/local/me-chief28