It is easy to make jokes and ridicule Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia. It is maintained by volunteers and information you find there often comes with a disclaimer, if we find a mistake to please report it so they can correct the error and update the info. Still, I think it more reliable that polarized opinion sites with their conspiracies and fake news (stolen election and Sasquatch sightings). Today is summer solstice, the day longest stretch of daylight and the shortest nightfall of the year. You don’t need Wikipedia to know that but it is there anyway.
I would be considered an amateur linguist. I love words, their origins and how they evolve over time and from one culture to another. Words are free more or less and they store easily. My kids had shoeboxes full of Matchbox cars that were neither free nor easy to keep organized. I much prefer words. So when ‘Estival’ was included in the Summer Solstice language I went to Wikipedia. I should have known it but memory becomes an issue and you just be glad you can still take notes. The word comes from Latin, associated with summer heat. Naturally I flipped the coin and got ‘Hibernal’ or, associated with winter. So today is this year’s Estival solstice. It lacks the backstory associated with the shortest day but one without the other would be like having one sock to service two feet.
Estival solstice comes too late for the rush of spring green and too soon for the abundance of harvest. I have small, green tomatoes near the bottom and close to the vine while blossoms are still opening up at the terminal tips. There are a few early, cool season morsels ready to pick but certainly not harvest time. Before long those little cherry tomatoes will be ripe on the vine, you eat them like candy. For now the summer sun just feels good.
Vernal and Autumnal Equinox alternate, evenly spaced between the two solstices but their job is little more than a reminder that nothing stays the same, change is in the air. I can’t help but think of Bronze Age astronomers who charted the sky, counted days and measured shadows to know when to plant, when to dig up roots. Given what they had to work with it is amazing what they did. In my rooting around (Wikipedia) I came across an article on the ‘Nebra Sky Disc’ which was new to me. The Bronze Age artifact, a solar tracking device was discovered in Germany in 1999. So I am giving Wikipedia a thumbs-up here. The story is still in progress with controversy and competing theories. But my takeaway is how well they figured it out. Their best measuring devices were the naked eye and the length of one’s finger, or distance between one knuckle and the next.
I’m sure there will be new (to me) words that come across my path and I’ll check their Etymology (origins) and get a feel for how I may or may not use them in the future. A good, new word is a terrible thing to waste. But I’ve been moving my fingers on the keys here long enough now and it is time to start moving my feet.
I would be considered an amateur linguist. I love words, their origins and how they evolve over time and from one culture to another. Words are free more or less and they store easily. My kids had shoeboxes full of Matchbox cars that were neither free nor easy to keep organized. I much prefer words. So when ‘Estival’ was included in the Summer Solstice language I went to Wikipedia. I should have known it but memory becomes an issue and you just be glad you can still take notes. The word comes from Latin, associated with summer heat. Naturally I flipped the coin and got ‘Hibernal’ or, associated with winter. So today is this year’s Estival solstice. It lacks the backstory associated with the shortest day but one without the other would be like having one sock to service two feet.
Estival solstice comes too late for the rush of spring green and too soon for the abundance of harvest. I have small, green tomatoes near the bottom and close to the vine while blossoms are still opening up at the terminal tips. There are a few early, cool season morsels ready to pick but certainly not harvest time. Before long those little cherry tomatoes will be ripe on the vine, you eat them like candy. For now the summer sun just feels good.
Vernal and Autumnal Equinox alternate, evenly spaced between the two solstices but their job is little more than a reminder that nothing stays the same, change is in the air. I can’t help but think of Bronze Age astronomers who charted the sky, counted days and measured shadows to know when to plant, when to dig up roots. Given what they had to work with it is amazing what they did. In my rooting around (Wikipedia) I came across an article on the ‘Nebra Sky Disc’ which was new to me. The Bronze Age artifact, a solar tracking device was discovered in Germany in 1999. So I am giving Wikipedia a thumbs-up here. The story is still in progress with controversy and competing theories. But my takeaway is how well they figured it out. Their best measuring devices were the naked eye and the length of one’s finger, or distance between one knuckle and the next.
I’m sure there will be new (to me) words that come across my path and I’ll check their Etymology (origins) and get a feel for how I may or may not use them in the future. A good, new word is a terrible thing to waste. But I’ve been moving my fingers on the keys here long enough now and it is time to start moving my feet.
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