I read the first Master Key in your post on facebook, and thought to myself, I know there is someone who wants to share, an interesting linguist of sorts who tells winding tales and speaks in various languages, and is sometimes Scottish and sometimes not. I did allow his help, as suggested. He wanted to teach and I wanted to learn. One of the memorable things I learned about was the Victorian Fern Craze and people who call themselves Fernists who go fern foraging ... how fernacious! (that is not a word, but we will use it anyway!). And have you heard of the German phrase for fern friendly? It also starts with an F. How fascinating!
The linguist offered me and my partner some ferns and even attempted to commit us to taking rare and dainty rainforest ferns, which we declined due to the level of care that would be involved in taking care of such plants and our cat's habit of eating plants ... We ended up picking up some fun and interesting succulents instead, as well as The Madagascar Jewel, a small palm-like plant.
In hindsight, it was not all that harmonious and he was not entirely sane. His home was littered everywhere with old papers, some yellowing and some crumpled. There were odd bits of junk, including a plaster nose (which I inherited). There is more to the story, and it is a little disturbing, so I will stop here for now.
He gave me a glimpse into a world I seldom think about or imagine. We paid him for the plants because it would have been a karmic fail to take a gift from someone in his precarious position.
We took the plants home and then our cat got sick. One of the plants was toxic to cats! So you see, this was not harmonious after all. In fact, the entire encounter lacked harmony, in hindsight. The cat is ok.
I resolve to pay stricter attention to the word "harmonious" next time. I think that is the key :)
I read the first Master Key in your post on facebook, and thought to myself, I know there is someone who wants to share, an interesting linguist of sorts who tells winding tales and speaks in various languages, and is sometimes Scottish and sometimes not. I did allow his help, as suggested. He wanted to teach and I wanted to learn. One of the memorable things I learned about was the Victorian Fern Craze and people who call themselves Fernists who go fern foraging ... how fernacious! (that is not a word, but we will use it anyway!). And have you heard of the German phrase for fern friendly? It also starts with an F. How fascinating!
ReplyDeleteThe linguist offered me and my partner some ferns and even attempted to commit us to taking rare and dainty rainforest ferns, which we declined due to the level of care that would be involved in taking care of such plants and our cat's habit of eating plants ... We ended up picking up some fun and interesting succulents instead, as well as The Madagascar Jewel, a small palm-like plant.
In hindsight, it was not all that harmonious and he was not entirely sane. His home was littered everywhere with old papers, some yellowing and some crumpled. There were odd bits of junk, including a plaster nose (which I inherited). There is more to the story, and it is a little disturbing, so I will stop here for now.
He gave me a glimpse into a world I seldom think about or imagine. We paid him for the plants because it would have been a karmic fail to take a gift from someone in his precarious position.
We took the plants home and then our cat got sick. One of the plants was toxic to cats! So you see, this was not harmonious after all. In fact, the entire encounter lacked harmony, in hindsight. The cat is ok.
I resolve to pay stricter attention to the word "harmonious" next time. I think that is the key :)