The delight of language!

I've just got back from a walk down to the local vet. My cat, Boomps brought in another possum baby last night to play with and so I took it to the vet to be sent to the wildlife recovery place.

This bites hard as a New Zealander! In New Zealand possums are vermin and great efforts are taken to remove them from the bush environment they are destroying. Here they are precious little things to be saved and nurtured - as I said it bites hard!

Anyway, Boomps has a habit of bringing in babies to play with. Big ones he kills and devours - he's a cat, its nature and whilst I don't particularly like cleaning up after him I appreciate the ones he leaves unpacked beside my bed as a late night snack - THAT is an expression of love!

I saw a house on the way there that looked uninhabited and was eagerly determined to check it out on my way back. However, on my return the gate was closed and fastened so I expect it has inhabitants of the legitimate kind.

Typing that makes me wonder about the concept of legitimate occupation and just exactly what makes some occupations illegitimate - but that's another blog!

Another aside, the first house I went and photographed now has had its lawns mowed and a temporary fence erected around the pool. it seems the caretaker who wrote the note to the squatter  has arrived. I went in to say hello but the house was as open and deserted as before. Robert and I are going down on Thursday to retrieve some rose bushes and azaleas before such retrieval work becomes impossible and the whole garden is bulldozed away.

And now to the point of this blog!

I'm fascinated by the English language, the preciseness and magpie qualities of a language which has historically taken and used words from everywhere in the quest for that degree of precision.

I often think about the subtle differences in words when I'm walking  - picture images that illustrate them and strive to delineate exact differences between words that seem very similar.

Three of my favorites are glint, glimmer and glisten. I can spend a whole hour's walking thinking about how different these three words are in their essence and I can do it over and over without becoming bored of it!!

Today I also thought of two more that intrigue me - the differences between lucky and fortuitous. Not words that look or sound similar but curious making nevertheless!!