What's outside

Gwenyn ac bloydyn banksia.

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Heddlu or ni mynd Lowr ogov . Today i went down a cave.

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Like the stalactites - and the columns

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Snail crossing the path at night. Inedible by humans says my host. Tha Sala, Thailand

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Across our wild garden -


ar draws ein gardd wyllt

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Heddiw, yn llwyddiannus iawn, diolch am eich cwmni J.W. - Today, was very successful, thanks for your company J.W.

Britheg arferol - usual snake’s head fritillaries.

Britheg anaferol - unusual snake’s head fritillaries.
Mae’r blodau lliw gwyn yn llai cyffredin - the white flowers are less common.

Cheers J.P.

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Very nice! I am not at all familiar with fritillaries, though I know the name from novels and such. Nice to see what they look like!

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Did you notice one of the white ones on the right of my pic above? We have the usual kind in rhe front garden (planted) and the white ones in the wild garden!

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These were taken in the Naracoorte caves which have world heritage listing because of the large amount of magafauna fossils in them.

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Attempt at picture of our goldfinches (nico), but it is a mix of birds and colours are very washed out.

I still don’t know the plural of nico!!

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According to GPC it’s nicos.

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And thank you also, JP!

I took this one of a Grey heron (Crëyr glas) (with my “unsmart” phone - you can tell!) as I was walking along the Oxford canal towpath on my way to meet up with @ramblingjohn outside the station

Seemed quite oblivious of the half a dozen or so people walking by in both directions

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Diolch yn fawr, Margaret, I wondered about that, but I didn’t think ‘s’ was a plural ending in Welsh. There are probably zillions of examples, but I can’t think of one!

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I don’t think thete are zillions (by the way, is that an SI unit?) but
tacsi and tacsis
bocs and bocsys
which, I know, are both imported words.

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A zillion isn’t a unit! It is a rare number only found in the vocabulary of mad women who exaggerate everything! But, thanks for the examples. I don’t think nico is borrowed, but I’m not sure of its derivation! @ramblingjohn any ideas?

I don’t have any idea where the name Nico is derived from (need a language expert for that).

I suspect zillion will become popular to describe the next financial crisis.
By then, mobile phones will have a zillabyte of memory.
But watching Nico will still be more interesting.

Cheers J.P.

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My Geiriadur Mawr has three different names for goldfinch - nico, eurbinc, teiliwr (telor) Llundain. But if you look the other direction (Welsh to English) you only have nico actually entered, but that entry also lists jac nico, peneuryn, and pobliw (as well as the others) before saying GOLDFINCH.

Curiously, in the English to Welsh side, there is also an entry for just finch which gives *asgell fraith, pinc" and then lists some specific types:
BACHELOR - ji-binc
GREEN - Llinos werdd, pila gwyrdd
MOUNTAIN; BRAMBLING - bronrhuddyn y mynydd

And when I looked for telor (something), all the birds listed were warblers. The more you try to follow a bird name to the other language direction, the more it gets mixed up!

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Today, a Green-veined white butterfly (Gwyn gwythiennau gwyrddion) perched on a Cuckooflower /Lady’s smock (Llaeth y gaseg)

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I’ve just been to see some of these guys at our friend’s Alpaca centre, near Swansea. I’m not aware of a Welsh translation for Alpaca. Having said that, it’s not a word that would come up too often in Welsh.

Sorry about the edits. I’m struggling with English today, never mind Welsh.

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I would be very, very surprised if the Welsh for alpaca is not alpaca!!!

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