Pretty clouds

Maybe it's because we are so tiny and therefore not only very grounded but also extremely close to the ground, but gnomes tend to love clouds. As sister Agnes would say:

Today the sky was adorned with some of the prettiest clouds I have ever seen. I tried to capture them in all their stunningness, but they were quite far away and the fact that we were speeding down the highway in Perry didn't help much either.

Anyway, there was this absolutely beautiful cauliflower cloud, which was pretty much an entire landscape of its own:

And there was a humongous cloud on the other side as well:

 

I'll happily admit to watching movies and series, so it's probably a bit too much Independence Day, but I swear, there was a UFO hiding in there!!

And the bit on the right contains a lovely topping of lenticular clouds.

I don't believe I'd ever seen those before, but the thing is, you usually don't notice these things until you actually find out about their existence. I came across the phenomenon lenticular cloud when I was looking for the name of a mindbogglingly odd cloud I came across when I was in Denmark:

It turned out this particular formation is called a Kelvin-Helholtz formation. Which was of course immediately added to the Gnomish Dictionary!

The Great Outdoors

A few months ago, we went to see the movie De Nieuwe Wildernis (The New Wilderness), about the animal kingdom in the nature reserve Oostvaardersplassen not far from here. It was amazing to see the enormous variety of animals living on a piece of land the size of a stamp, and how they were all connected in an endless cycle of life. The cinematography was very impressive and the story of life in the wetlands very captivating.

So when I was offered the opportunity to watch the movie again, I didn't have to think twice. The screening was an initiative of Nudge, a social enterprise aimed at connecting individuals and companies that wish to create a positive and long-lasting change for society. Nudge announced the dates of the showing on their website and everybody who read it was invited. They would take care of a location and an inflatable screen (all powered by sustainable sources of energy of course!), and all moviegoers were to bring their own chair, blanket, picnic basket and whatever they deemed necessary to watch a movie.

Despite it being the end of June, the evening was bitter cold, so by the time the movie ended, we were all huddled up in our coats and blankets. The movie and its music were still incredibly beautiful and watching it outdoors less than 5 kilometers away from where the events had actually taken place made it even more special!

The grass is always greener...

I have an immense fondness for cereals. I’m not talking about breakfast cereal (I’m more of a yoghurt/English breakfast kind of gnome), but the crops. Everything about them fascinates me: the color range of greens and yellows, the way the wind creates waves in them, the soft rustling sound in the breeze...

My childhood was spent amidst trees, grass and cows. Cereals weren’t very popular in our part of the country, so I only knew  what ears looked like from pictures in books. As a kid, I firmly believed this was the source of our daily bread:

I used to collect the ears and take them home with me, adding to our family’s daily needs. I would carefully pick out the grains and smash them with a stone to create flower. I was outraged and utterly disappointed when my dad told me it was ‘just’ grass, and unsuitable for making bread. Well, it was the only thing around that remotely looked like ears, so it *had* to be cereal, right?

As I grew older and started taking biology classes, it all became clear to me. But I still can’t walk past a grainy grass without remembering and smiling.

Don't quit the day job

It's been a really hot week. I felt sorry for Pippin in his long coat. I tried using clippers on him, but they went *splut* instead of *bzzzzt*. So I took the liberty of freeing Pip from his long coat using scissors. The idea was to turn him into a siamese cat. It didn't work out that way. He looks more like a sheep. A fuzzy, not-so-hot-anymore siamese sheep.

Birds of a feather

Or rather: a bird's feather. This morning I got the answer to a question I wasn't even aware of burning in my mind for many years: do magpies have black and white feathers? Or do they have black-and-white feathers? You probably weren't aware of it either, but I bet deep down inside you were wondering too.

Now you know.

I like magpies. To me they are crows with a sense of style. Plus they have an amazing Latin name: pica pica. And they look really gnomish when they're young:

Dumber than a donkey?

The Dutch have a saying that goes something like this: "A donkey never trips over the same stone twice." Obviously meaning after it trips once, it learns how to place its hooves as so to avoid tripping again. So when somebody makes the same mistake twice, they get reminded of how not even donkeys are that stupid.

Yesterday it rained, so I borrowed one of the gazillion umbrellas we have lying around at work. They were ordered a long time ago as a promotional gift for people who visited our stall at a fair, and had our company logo stamped on it. For some reason, they were never handed out, though. So I took one of those lovely umbrellas, stepped outside and within 5 seconds I found out why we didn't give them to our clients. The opening mechanism was faulty, so after opening it did actually click into place, but not without taking a bite out of my finger. Meaning I have a big gaping hole in my left middle finger. Yay. Well, actually it's barely more than a scratch, but it hurts!! REALLY!

This morning the skies had cleared, therefore I dutifully returned the umbrella, but in the afternoon it was pouring once again. So I took the umbrella with me once more. You read the intro to the story, so I don't think I need to explain what happened. Suffice it to say I now have a matching crater in my right middle finger. *Sigh*

So that makes me dumber than a donkey. Do I feel bad about that? Heck no. I love donkeys. They're ponies! Gnomish ponies! With bunny ears!!

Messin' with da mastah?

The big four-oh. Am I coping? Quite well, actually. Imminent midlife crisis: check. Sports car: check. Contemplating piercing/tattoo: check. Desperate attempt to appear younger than 40: check. (I have feathers in my hair, I'm a chickin!!)

So far I'm living up to stereotypes/prejudice quite nicely. So when challenged by a couple of teenagers to engage in a game of laserquest, it seemed only natural to accept. And make short work of them.

I came, I saw, I kicked butt. 

I know where the bunnies went (and what they were up to!)

Whiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieh, baby bunnies!!!

Drooling over dresses

I mentioned it before, my guilty pleasure of 'reading' the Daily Mail. And the best days to read this sorry excuse for a newspaper is the day after the Academy Awards ceremony or the Met gala, to get a glimpse of all the beautiful (and in some cases not so beautiful) dresses.

For me, the winner was this stunning blue dress:

The runner up was this wonderful Carrie-dress:

Least favorite dress was a case of: no – just no.

Message from the GODS

Hear ye, hear ye!

Extensive research by the Gnomish Overlords Dictionary Society (GODS) has revealed that the word 'pingo' is falling into disuse. The GODS would therefore like to draw your attention to the word as well as the phenomenon pingo: the formation of an ice mound during a big freeze, which will collapse after temperatures rise again.

For the lesser informed, here's the pingo in a nutshell:

So tell all your friends, spell it out during a game of scrabble or generally steer any conversation you're part of towards the topic of ice ages, just to show off your knowitallism. 

After all there are sufficient other words that contribute far less to the gnomish dictionary – or society in general to be frank – that have to go first. So to prevent any future risk of losing perfectly usable gnomish words, the GODS are of the opinion that the following words shall be placed on a shortlist for imminent removal:

• Caravan
• Football

This list will be updated periodically, so stay tuned. Suggestions can be submitted to the GODS, but will very likely be ignored.