out walking on snow and ice, were brought back into the pond water where they came from, Toivo Tuberik who saw them, reports. Just in case someone has been worried.
Ideas from the Front Page
-
Liis
- Registered user
- Posts: 1837
- Joined: December 5th, 2008, 7:00 pm
Re: Ideas from the Front Page
The December frogs
out walking on snow and ice, were brought back into the pond water where they came from, Toivo Tuberik who saw them, reports. Just in case someone has been worried.
out walking on snow and ice, were brought back into the pond water where they came from, Toivo Tuberik who saw them, reports. Just in case someone has been worried.
-
Liis
- Registered user
- Posts: 1837
- Joined: December 5th, 2008, 7:00 pm
Midwinter Waterfowl Census
in Estonia this weekend (January 12-13),
Just in case anyone goes visiting Estonia and wants to test birdwatching in Estonian as training for Kordian's and Urmas' idea of checking the Birdmap birds personally.
Waterfowl census call in Estonian, on front page, translation coming.
PS. Urmas (Sellis) will talk on "Eagles and Internet" in Tartu, on Wednesday Jan 16th at 18.00
in Estonia this weekend (January 12-13),
Just in case anyone goes visiting Estonia and wants to test birdwatching in Estonian as training for Kordian's and Urmas' idea of checking the Birdmap birds personally.
Waterfowl census call in Estonian, on front page, translation coming.
PS. Urmas (Sellis) will talk on "Eagles and Internet" in Tartu, on Wednesday Jan 16th at 18.00
-
Liis
- Registered user
- Posts: 1837
- Joined: December 5th, 2008, 7:00 pm
Margus Ots's summary of his awe-inspiring birding Big Year is on the front page.
Read and enjoy, and all his diary stories are at www.looduskalender.ee ...term/49.
The great white pelican, one of Margus's memorable things to remember the year by, was first seen on May 2nd, and last on August 30th.
Thank you once more, Margus Ots!
Read and enjoy, and all his diary stories are at www.looduskalender.ee ...term/49.
The great white pelican, one of Margus's memorable things to remember the year by, was first seen on May 2nd, and last on August 30th.
Thank you once more, Margus Ots!
-
Liis
- Registered user
- Posts: 1837
- Joined: December 5th, 2008, 7:00 pm
Kristel Vilbaste's review of 2012 in Estonian nature is on the front page. Enjoy, remember and compare!
Kristel Vilbaste writes weekly chronicles, links to all in Estonian and German
http://www.looduskalender.ee/taxonomy/term/47
http://www.looduskalender.ee/de/taxonomy/term/47
Sorry, there has not been time to edit and set them up in proper English from the raw English translations that go as basis for the German editions!
Small detail this year - my hazy notions of the story of Rapunzel and the rapuntzel or rampion (Phyteuma sp.) plant at last got straightened out. Mikk Sarv (What was special about 2012, in the beginning) had found a rampion, most likely Phyteuma spicatum, spiked rampion.
I had some memory of a beautiful princess with long golden hair and a high tower and a suitor climbing up by the hair. Plant did not appear to be particularly hairy, or fibrous. So?
It turned out - thank you, Wikipedia - that princess Rapunzel's mother had a great craving for eating rapunzel while pregnant with her, and the girl was named for the plant. She grew up very beautiful and was of course imprisoned by a nasty witch, in a tower, with no stairs.
Highly modern story: pregnancy cravings, alternative vegetarian food and so on.
Full tale by Bros. Grimm, in English, HERE
Found moreover a note that the rapunzel plant is in danger of extinction in UK, only 300 plants left in 2010, plant guardians looked for.
EDIT:
More clarifications. Rapunzel's mother did not even crave for rapunzel-rampion; it was, in some variations, for corn salad, Valerianella locusta, also called rapunzel, and quite fashionable indeed these days.
The lady can't have been as salad-bar-modern as that. I think I will at least hold out for the rampion-rapunzel.
Kristel Vilbaste writes weekly chronicles, links to all in Estonian and German
http://www.looduskalender.ee/taxonomy/term/47
http://www.looduskalender.ee/de/taxonomy/term/47
Sorry, there has not been time to edit and set them up in proper English from the raw English translations that go as basis for the German editions!
Small detail this year - my hazy notions of the story of Rapunzel and the rapuntzel or rampion (Phyteuma sp.) plant at last got straightened out. Mikk Sarv (What was special about 2012, in the beginning) had found a rampion, most likely Phyteuma spicatum, spiked rampion.
I had some memory of a beautiful princess with long golden hair and a high tower and a suitor climbing up by the hair. Plant did not appear to be particularly hairy, or fibrous. So?
It turned out - thank you, Wikipedia - that princess Rapunzel's mother had a great craving for eating rapunzel while pregnant with her, and the girl was named for the plant. She grew up very beautiful and was of course imprisoned by a nasty witch, in a tower, with no stairs.
Highly modern story: pregnancy cravings, alternative vegetarian food and so on.
Full tale by Bros. Grimm, in English, HERE
Found moreover a note that the rapunzel plant is in danger of extinction in UK, only 300 plants left in 2010, plant guardians looked for.
EDIT:
More clarifications. Rapunzel's mother did not even crave for rapunzel-rampion; it was, in some variations, for corn salad, Valerianella locusta, also called rapunzel, and quite fashionable indeed these days.
The lady can't have been as salad-bar-modern as that. I think I will at least hold out for the rampion-rapunzel.
-
alice44
- Registered user
- Posts: 16489
- Joined: April 8th, 2009, 8:59 pm
- Location: Oregon, Western USA
Ah ha Liis
I heard an interview with the editor of a new version of Brother's Grimm stories -- Philip Pullman (as I recall). He talked at some length about pregnancy and this story -- it must have been her mother's and hers. He said his book includes information about some of the original story tellers. Apparently the Brothers Grimm got the stories from story tellers and then wrote them down, some of the tellers are known. I grew up reading various versions of the stories and would like to check this new edition out.
I heard an interview with the editor of a new version of Brother's Grimm stories -- Philip Pullman (as I recall). He talked at some length about pregnancy and this story -- it must have been her mother's and hers. He said his book includes information about some of the original story tellers. Apparently the Brothers Grimm got the stories from story tellers and then wrote them down, some of the tellers are known. I grew up reading various versions of the stories and would like to check this new edition out.
-
leonia
- Registered user
- Posts: 907
- Joined: November 20th, 2008, 9:24 pm
- Location: Near Munich, Bavaria, Germany
Hello Alice,
its longer known that the Brothers Grimm actually received the most of their stories from women from their home county. Recent research has shown that the majority of these women came from Huguenot families or from their immediate cultural environment. This explains why many of the stories include a lot of similarities with the stories of the fairy tale world of the French collector Charles Perrault.
its longer known that the Brothers Grimm actually received the most of their stories from women from their home county. Recent research has shown that the majority of these women came from Huguenot families or from their immediate cultural environment. This explains why many of the stories include a lot of similarities with the stories of the fairy tale world of the French collector Charles Perrault.
-
Liis
- Registered user
- Posts: 1837
- Joined: December 5th, 2008, 7:00 pm
Hello, Alice and Leonia -
Huguenot origins? So the rapunzel would reflect French taste for salads (the corn salad version) rather than reminiscences of medieval vegetables (the rapunzel-rampion, grown for its roots at some time)?
Huguenot origins? So the rapunzel would reflect French taste for salads (the corn salad version) rather than reminiscences of medieval vegetables (the rapunzel-rampion, grown for its roots at some time)?
-
leonia
- Registered user
- Posts: 907
- Joined: November 20th, 2008, 9:24 pm
- Location: Near Munich, Bavaria, Germany
Not only Huguenot origins, but as well the Stories of the Arabian Nights (in German "1001 und eine Nacht") and more. Even in times long ago the stories swept around the world and enriched the imagination of the people they met.
This article is only in German, but as you are able to read it, Liis, I put the link in here:
http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-13510222.html
This article is only in German, but as you are able to read it, Liis, I put the link in here:
http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-13510222.html
-
Liis
- Registered user
- Posts: 1837
- Joined: December 5th, 2008, 7:00 pm
Thank you, Leonia! (have to check whether corn salad would grow in Arabia? 
)
Hmm, Kindermärchen - rather brutal and slightly immoral, aren't they ?
Meanwhile, another rather fascinating tale: please do read Jüri v. Graubergs recollections of living with wolves around as a child!
http://www.looduskalender.ee/en/node/15700
Much to think about!
)Hmm, Kindermärchen - rather brutal and slightly immoral, aren't they
?Meanwhile, another rather fascinating tale: please do read Jüri v. Graubergs recollections of living with wolves around as a child!
http://www.looduskalender.ee/en/node/15700
Much to think about!
-
Liis
- Registered user
- Posts: 1837
- Joined: December 5th, 2008, 7:00 pm
About the partridges in Tartu city:
Once I saw a calculation of how many gifts the receiver of all the things in the English song The twelve days of Christmas would get:
On the first day of Christmas/
My true love gave to me/
A partridge in a pear tree
It goes on with golden rings, milkmaids, dancing lords* ... Anyone who has done the mathematics?
12 partridges, 22 turtle doves I remember.
*sorry, leaping lords; the ladies were dancing.
The Swedish king and his 14 Shrove Tuesday buns: he had eaten some few things before the buns too. Such as lobster, sauerkraut, rapes, caviar, champagne. Shrove Tuesday, traditions and buns, discussed long ago in the forum
The true love above received 384 items as gifts.
On the 12th day the gifts were:
... Twelve lords a-leaping, | Eleven pipers piping, | Ten ladies dancing, | Nine drummers drumming, | Eight maids a-milking, | Seven swans a-swimming, | Six geese a-laying, | Five gold rings, | Four colly birds, | Three French hens, | Two turtle doves, and | A partridge in a pear tree
Once I saw a calculation of how many gifts the receiver of all the things in the English song The twelve days of Christmas would get:
On the first day of Christmas/
My true love gave to me/
A partridge in a pear tree
It goes on with golden rings, milkmaids, dancing lords* ... Anyone who has done the mathematics?
12 partridges, 22 turtle doves I remember.
*sorry, leaping lords; the ladies were dancing.
The Swedish king and his 14 Shrove Tuesday buns: he had eaten some few things before the buns too. Such as lobster, sauerkraut, rapes, caviar, champagne.
Shrove Tuesday, traditions and buns, discussed long ago in the forumThe true love above received 384 items as gifts.
On the 12th day the gifts were:
... Twelve lords a-leaping, | Eleven pipers piping, | Ten ladies dancing, | Nine drummers drumming, | Eight maids a-milking, | Seven swans a-swimming, | Six geese a-laying, | Five gold rings, | Four colly birds, | Three French hens, | Two turtle doves, and | A partridge in a pear tree
-
macdoum
- Registered user
- Posts: 6786
- Joined: November 17th, 2008, 12:12 am
- Location: Alsace, France
Liis,you have done the maths. How funny..Liis wrote:About the partridges in Tartu city:
Once I saw a calculation of how many gifts the receiver of all the things in the English song The twelve days of Christmas would get:
On the first day of Christmas/
My true love gave to me/
A partridge in a pear tree
It goes on with golden rings, milkmaids, dancing lords* ... Anyone who has done the mathematics?
12 partridges, 22 turtle doves I remember.
*sorry, leaping lords; the ladies were dancing.
The Swedish king and his 14 Shrove Tuesday buns: he had eaten some few things before the buns too. Such as lobster, sauerkraut, rapes, caviar, champagne.
The true love above received 384 items as gifts.
On the 12th day the gifts were:
... Twelve lords a-leaping, | Eleven pipers piping, | Ten ladies dancing, | Nine drummers drumming, | Eight maids a-milking, | Seven swans a-swimming, | Six geese a-laying, | Five gold rings, | Four colly birds, | Three French hens, | Two turtle doves, and | A partridge in a pear tree
Carmel a member of SHOW .. I hope you love birds too. Its economical. It saves going to heaven.
Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson
-
Liis
- Registered user
- Posts: 1837
- Joined: December 5th, 2008, 7:00 pm
Victoria Beckham's middle finger: thin or - hmmm - fat? 
The mallard gulping frogs on front page - author Rein Kuresoo says they do it, partly, because of desperate protein hunger, after a diet of white bread.
And that after a winter of the bread the mallard's insides will be like Ms. Beckham's finger.
For a duck, is that too thin or too wide?
The mallard gulping frogs on front page - author Rein Kuresoo says they do it, partly, because of desperate protein hunger, after a diet of white bread.
And that after a winter of the bread the mallard's insides will be like Ms. Beckham's finger.
For a duck, is that too thin or too wide?
-
Liis
- Registered user
- Posts: 1837
- Joined: December 5th, 2008, 7:00 pm
Elks, moose, their relatives and language - the never-ending story
In the thesis that is the basis of the interview with Rauno Veeroja on LK front page the author uses "moose" for Alces alces. Yet I call the creature elk.
Most people in Europe have learnt "British", or "standard", or "international" English at school, that is, if anyone thought at all about different varieties. I have. So, as far as I still know how to, I try to be consistent about it. Elk, then.
But at least we hopefully know by now that an US elk and European elk are not the same creature. Common names of animals, birds, plants probably abound with such mistakes. It might not even be mistakes, somebody can have said, quite correctly, "Look I saw an animal like an elk in the forest" but the "animal like" was lost.
Anyone who has explicitly had a choice of learning US or UK English at school?
In the thesis that is the basis of the interview with Rauno Veeroja on LK front page the author uses "moose" for Alces alces. Yet I call the creature elk.
Most people in Europe have learnt "British", or "standard", or "international" English at school, that is, if anyone thought at all about different varieties. I have. So, as far as I still know how to, I try to be consistent about it. Elk, then.
But at least we hopefully know by now that an US elk and European elk are not the same creature. Common names of animals, birds, plants probably abound with such mistakes. It might not even be mistakes, somebody can have said, quite correctly, "Look I saw an animal like an elk in the forest" but the "animal like" was lost.
Anyone who has explicitly had a choice of learning US or UK English at school?
-
Bea
- Moderator
- Posts: 28878
- Joined: January 15th, 2011, 1:02 pm
- Location: Bavaria, Germany
I have no idea for a duck --- but surely Mrs. Beckhams middle finger is thinner than my smallest .....Liis wrote:Victoria Beckham's middle finger: thin or - hmmm - fat?
.... For a duck, is that too thin or too wide?
Never thought that ducks could eat frogs and every time having a look at the picture of the duck swallowing a frog it choked me in my throat
especially when thinking about that they need 15 minutes to swallow one ... Nature does nothing in vain (Aristoteles)
-
Bea
- Moderator
- Posts: 28878
- Joined: January 15th, 2011, 1:02 pm
- Location: Bavaria, Germany
Being at school is a loooong time ago - but I never had the choice of learning US English ... the rule was UK English.Liis wrote:... Anyone who has explicitly had a choice of learning US or UK English at school?
But for some terms teachers sometimes told us the US term, just to know there is one. When doing exercises or tests (uuaahhhh!!!!
) we had to use UK English!!!Nowadays I´m happy to be able to conversate using any terms in English - no matter UK or US
Nature does nothing in vain (Aristoteles)
-
Liis
- Registered user
- Posts: 1837
- Joined: December 5th, 2008, 7:00 pm
Jackal camera?? 
To be sure, it is April 1st.
However, a jackal was actually caught in Estonia in the beginnng of March. Nobody seems to know for sure how it came to be there.
For me, it was news that jackals have been found in the wild in Austria and Hungary!
To be sure, it is April 1st.
However, a jackal was actually caught in Estonia in the beginnng of March. Nobody seems to know for sure how it came to be there.
For me, it was news that jackals have been found in the wild in Austria and Hungary!
-
Felis silvestris
- Site Admin
- Posts: 20039
- Joined: February 20th, 2011, 4:54 pm
- Location: Germany
http://news.err.ee/environment/3de8049b ... 3899416f54
But I still don't believe we will get a Jackal cam so soon!
But I still don't believe we will get a Jackal cam so soon!
“One can measure the greatness and the moral progress of a nation by looking at how it treats its animals” (Mahatma Gandhi)
"You can judge a man's true character by the way he treats his fellow animals" (Paul McCartney)
The Aquila Pomarina Collection
"You can judge a man's true character by the way he treats his fellow animals" (Paul McCartney)
The Aquila Pomarina Collection
-
Liis
- Registered user
- Posts: 1837
- Joined: December 5th, 2008, 7:00 pm
Felis silvestris wrote:http://news.err.ee/environment/3de8049b ... 3899416f54
But I still don't believe we will get a Jackal cam so soon!
Hmmm, depends on what you mean by Jackal cam ... Today is definitely not April 1st - and Peep Männil states that the jackal picture on LK article page is from an Estonian track camera (webcam that works only when something moves in its view).
At least two, probably more jackals are thought to live in the area (western Estonia) where the 1st jackal was killed, may be there already since 2010 ...
http://www.looduskalender.ee/node/16299
Translation on its way.
(arrived: http://www.looduskalender.ee/en/node/16300)
PS Report in English in blog by Romanian jackal specialist Ovidiu Banea http://goldenjackalaround.blogspot.se/
-
Liis
- Registered user
- Posts: 1837
- Joined: December 5th, 2008, 7:00 pm
Estonian TV's nature programme Osoon will show more about the jackal tracking expedition in Estonian Matsalu tomorrow; programme starts 20.05 (Estonian time)
http://otse.err.ee/etv/
A video will be available in the ETV archive too.
At least 3 jackals are believed to be around ...
http://otse.err.ee/etv/
A video will be available in the ETV archive too.
At least 3 jackals are believed to be around ...
-
Liis
- Registered user
- Posts: 1837
- Joined: December 5th, 2008, 7:00 pm
The weekend nature quiz ... http://www.looduskalender.ee/en/node/16485
... queries are in Estonian, sorry.
I considered giving the scientific (Latin) names for the various choices, but then thought 1) maybe finding and using them was meant to be part of the quiz task 2) what if I give the wrong or old name
Two tips for non-Estonian-speakers who want to try
Translations of Estonian bird names: as always, the Multilingual Birdsearch Engine
and EOÜ's excellent Names of birds in the world - Estonian-Latin-English
Translations of plant names in Estonian: Index of Estonian plant names, Estonian-Latin
... queries are in Estonian, sorry.
I considered giving the scientific (Latin) names for the various choices, but then thought 1) maybe finding and using them was meant to be part of the quiz task 2) what if I give the wrong or old name
Two tips for non-Estonian-speakers who want to try
Translations of Estonian bird names: as always, the Multilingual Birdsearch Engine
and EOÜ's excellent Names of birds in the world - Estonian-Latin-English
Translations of plant names in Estonian: Index of Estonian plant names, Estonian-Latin