Ideas from the Front Page

[Liis]

Look out - or down - when you are at your computer, hunting WTEs!
It may be the warm home of some 8-legged being
http://www.looduskalender.ee/node/12366

[Jo UK]

Oh Liis!
How could you?

Now I shall remember that every time I come to the computer!

[macdoum]

Oh Liis!
How could you?

Now I shall remember that every time I come to the computer!

Liis..and Jo,
I remember Liis telling us about the amount of insects we bring in on the woodpile. (was it around 50,000 varied including lots of spiders ?). Just a while ago I put a log on the fire and then watched hopelessly as a spider jumped for his life straight into the flames. ..he shouted for but it was too late.
Sorry,sorry spider.

[alice44]

Liis..and Jo,
I remember Liis tellings us about the amount of insects we bring in on the woodpile. (was it around 50,000 varied including lots of spiders ?). Just a while ago I put a log on the fire and then watched hopelessly as a spider jumped for his life straight into the flames. ..he shouted for but it was too late.
Sorry,sorry spider.

At one time I had to check all my wood for crickets before I brought it in.

[Liis]

But ... what a nice modern e-ecological touch: a new little world, and creatures who appreciate and make use of that surplus energy and warmth. In addition to cats ...
Although the spider is somewhat surprising. I thought they much preferred more humidity than computers provide. As a matter of fact an enthomologist worried about the future of house spiders, said that modern cellars were by far too dry for them.

[alice44]

My house is full of spiders I just can't be killing them. My quilt room is even a birthing chamber -- not just now, in late summer and well into fall. I do try to carry out as many of them as I can.

[Kitty KCMO]

I thought I was rare in my respect for spiders. Whereas I do shudder if they crawl on me, & I will indeed stomp on one if whatever it is doing at the time displeases me, I usually leave them alone, or even scoop them up & put them in a safer place. My husband always used to ask why? My reply was/is that they eat other insects we do not usually see, so they are welcome. I even name them-- "Rupert" (why, I have no idea, it just came to me once & so all are now called Rupert).

[Liis]

That respect should be shared by a great part of the world - seeing that a spider or spiders is said to have saved Mohammed when he fled from pursuers into a cave. The spiders wove a net across the entrance whereupon the pursuers rode past, saying nobody can have entered that for a long time.
The pursuers didn't know much about spiders, evidently. Some fix a net or the beginnings of it in no time at all ...

[macdoum]

My hubby would agree. In springtime every day he has to 'fight' his way to the letterbox for the morning newspaper....cussin' and waving his arms.

[Kitty KCMO]

My hubby would agree. In springtime every day he has to 'fight' his way to the letterbox for the morning newspaper....cussin' and waving his arms.

Macdoum!

[Liis]

Macdoum!

In spring? I thought spiders had their springtime feelings in autumn. All those lovely, silvery, misty photogenique nets and threads that every nature photographer has had at least a period and half a book of ...

[Liis]

Sorry - double entry of post above
Can't delete entirely because then Macdoum's telling me of my sins below would be incomprehensible ...

Anyway, can as well use space to moan about the trouble to find a reasonable word for that swaying, billowing, waving, undulating, swaying, wavy .... ice. Lainetav, just right and so simple in Estonian!

[Liis]

Birder's diary 17.02 - and the green and the grey-headed woodpecker.
In Estonia the green woodpecker is a rare bird, and seems to be on the decline, whereas the grey-headed is quite common.
Quite the reverse in Sweden: some 20 000-40 000 green woodpecker pairs compared to 1200-2000 grey-head pairs, and they were down less than 100 in the 1970s.

[macdoum]

In spring? I thought spiders had their springtime feelings in autumn. All those lovely, silvery, misty photogenique nets and threads that every nature photographer has had at least a period and half a book of ...

Liis,Kitty, maybe it was automn... my memory is having a holiday. (and Liis you did a double there..and now its triple) !! no more mr. green possible
Have you all seen the article about Swaying Ice on the front page ?...and the video ?

http://www.looduskalender.ee/en/node/12413

Sad news about the Blue Tits too....snifff...

[Felis silvestris]

Sorry - double entry of post above
Can't delete entirely because then Macdoum's telling me of my sins below would be incomprehensible ...

Anyway, can as well use space to moan about the trouble to find a reasonable word for that swaying, billowing, waving, undulating, swaying, wavy .... ice. Lainetav, just right and so simple in Estonian!

You talk about the article on the swaying ice? Yes, I had some sweat over it too, not using the same words again and again.

[Jo UK]

Heaving, groaning, crackling ice?

[Liis]

Thank you, Jo
Heaving ice - just right!

Except when totally wrong I don't like to change titles afterwards ( grin and bear it...) But I will certrainly sneak in and have the swaying in the text.

[Liis]

The flax and linen story http://www.looduskalender.ee/node/12447
In the last paragraph I just had to give up on this sentence
"Linalõimed kedrati vokil nn "sõlmedeks", mis sisaldasid ühtekokku 40 linalõime, 20 sõlmest sai juba linalõnga. "
Word by word:
Flax fibre was spun on the spinning wheel into so called "sõlmed" [knots] that contained altogether 40 linen fibres, from 20 "sõlme" sorry, my mistake, not 20 fibres already linen yarn could be made"

A spinning wheel produces yarn (in this case usually from bunches of linen or flax fibres, rovings). What, then, are the "sõlmed"?

The flax and linen producing terminology in total is at least as complicated and exotic as in hunting, so please, any corrections and explanations from anyone experienced are truly welcome!

PS. and where in the process does flax turn into linen, also at some in-between stage called line, as in line fibres ...

[macdoum]

The flax and linen story http://www.looduskalender.ee/node/12447
In the last paragraph I just had to give up on this sentence
"Linalõimed kedrati vokil nn "sõlmedeks", mis sisaldasid ühtekokku 40 linalõime, 20 sõlmest sai juba linalõnga. "
Word by word:
Flax fibre was spun on the spinning wheel into so called "sõlmed" [knots] that contained altogether 40 line fibres, from 20 fibres already linen yarn could be made"

A spinning wheel produces yarn (in this case usually from bunches of linen or flax fibres, rovings). What, then, are the "sõlmed"?

The flax and linen producing terminology in total is at least as complicated and exotic as in hunting, so please, any corrections and explanations from anyone experienced are truly welcome!

Maybe this will help with terminology;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQ8FGtMi ... re=related
Its a bit long and is an industrial process,still maybe its a help. As you say,terms are wierd known only to those in the linen trade,I suppose.
Wow,all that work for my dishcloth.

[Liis]

Wow,all that work for my dishcloth.

Macdoum - you have linen dishcloths!? I am awed and humbled ...
In such circumstances another Estonian handicraft - can't call it industry - soon to be paraded on Independence day, tomorrow, Feb 24, might tempt you. Will go & put up links on Picnic grounds at once ...

Flax, linen, spinning, weaving: closed society witchcraft. My nearest personal experience is growing a patch of flax some 40x40 cm. Then I forgot the pulled plant bunch (1) in the snow - you are supposed to be able to soak (well, rett = rot) them in snow too - and the mice quickly got themselves upmarket, fashionably linen-lined winter homes ...