Stonecrop Expressions

Since I arrived at Stonecrop, I've been hearing a lot of funny expressions and words. Specifically, there are a lot of British terms in use around here. Which is understandable, considering that the gardens bare the indelible mark of the director, who is British, and has been at Stonecrop for more than 20 years. I guess I had just always thought in the back of my head that my encyclopedic knowledge of Monty Python and Black Adder meant I knew oh-so-much about English culture. And I suppose that compared to most people around me, I did. Anyway. Funny terms. Some may be British, some may just be Caroline. Some of the terms are funny, or confusing, and some have obvious meanings, and are just odd to hear in common usage by everyone here, not to mention their presence on signs and garden literature. Anyway, without further ado:

bits & bobs = bits & pieces
bothy = the gardener's cottage (on the lord/master's estate)
carpark = parking lot (The signs here actually say carpark!)
(dog) cookies = dog biscuits
crisps = potato chips
faffing = detail work (though I think faffing more properly is the doing of unimportant minutia that prevents one from getting "real" work done)
fire = portable heater (or possibly any heat source)
heavy on the sausage = heavy on technical/scientific detail (this is my favorite so far)
kitchen roll = paper towel
loo = bathroom (The signs here actually say loo!)
queue = line
rotor = rotation (as in "weekly chores rotor") skeleton = outline
slippers = socks (a sign meaning take off your shoes says "slippers only")
strike = scrape (we use "striker-offers" to scrape/level soil in pots)
torch = flashlight

herbs pronounced "hurbs" instead of "urbs"
pets with honorifics (two of the cats here are Mr. President and Ms. Kit)
"...followed a rubbish cart because he thought it was a wedding" = "When you assume, you make an ass of u and me"

How many of these did you already know?

Other random observations:

I still enjoy going to work every morning.

I am the tallest person at Stonecrop.

This is the first place anyone has ever complimented me on my handwriting.

Whatnot

Had a good weekend, mostly solitary. I needed the break from people anyway. So I did a little of the shopping - and have acquired Roadside Geology of New York, and 50 Hikes in the Lower Hudson Valley. Also have some trail maps for my area on order. A little research has indicated that I'm once again surrounded by state parks. In this case, Hudson Highlands and Fahnestock State Parks. There are hundreds of miles of trails for me to explore - including two hikes that are going to kick my ass - Anthony's Nose, and Breakneck Ridge. Both of these are steep and treacherous, and give commanding views of the Hudson Highlands - supposedly better than those from Hook Mountain (behind my old place in Valley Cottage). So if I can tear myself away from the plants - there's a lot to see and take in around here.

The rest of my Saturday involved a geology field trip in the area around Poughkeepsie. It's not that I'm missing my old career (hell, it's not like I was doing much geology as a geologist) but we've run out of slate to topdress alpines with here at Stonecrop. Usually Mr. Cabot brings it back from Alberta, or someplace similarly far away. Geo-Gimp to the rescue! In any event, I found a great outcrop of "Hudson River Shale" aka, the Austin Glen member of the Normanskill Formation. These are Ordovician roacks, 440-510 million years old. I collected some shale for Stonecrop, and also found a nice looking fossil. Or possibly a very pretty pseudofossil. Okay, it's probably a pseudofossil. I can dream, can't I?

Eurypterid or Coincidental Fractures?

The real heartbreaker is that I picked up another fossil that was definitely a fossil. A trilobite. First one I've ever found. There was not doubt in my mind it was a fossil. I set it down while I looked at another rock. Then I couldn't find it again. And I still didn't find it after half an hour of poking through rock fragements. Sigh. At least I brought home some shale and saw a really neat metamorphic series, too.

Sunday involved hiking around the Stonecrop grounds - and I mean the grounds, not the gardens. I had been meaning to do this since I got here. There are a lot of big trees, and a nice bare rock hill top, covered with outcrops, glacial erratics, and some scraggly trees. That is to say it was beautiful. I particularly liked seeing a windswept Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana). It had a great bonsai sort of feel to it.

Then it was home to brew a batch of Pale Ale, and then off to bed. What a productive little lad am I.

George Clooney is the Man

Sorry, this is going to be another political post. Sorta. I just wanted to say that I really like George Clooney. Good actor, smart man, wise politics. He blogs, ever-so-periodically, at Huffington Post. I really liked what he had to say in his Oscar speech, but what I really like is what he recently wrote about the namby-pamby democrats. I think it applies equally to our snoozing, Bush-coddling press:

In 2003, a lot of us were saying, where is the link between Saddam and bin Laden? What does Iraq have to do with 9/11? We knew it was bullshit. Which is why it drives me crazy to hear all these Democrats saying, "We were misled." It makes me want to shout, "Fuck you, you weren't misled. You were afraid of being called unpatriotic."

Full text here. It's not very long. And while I'm at it, three cheers for Senator Feingold (D-WI), first for coming forth with a call to officially censure President Bush for his lawbreaking, second for calling out the cowering Democrats:

I’m amazed at Democrats, cowering with this president’s numbers so low. The administration just has to raise the specter of the war and the Democrats run and hide. … Too many Democrats are going to do the same thing they did in 2000 and 2004. In the face of this, they’ll say we’d better just focus on domestic issues. … [Democrats shouldn’t] cower to the argument, that whatever you do, if you question the administration, you’re helping the terrorists.

Also, witness the predictable, pathetic response, compliments of Senator Wayne Allard (R-CO), who declared in a Fox News (where else?) interview that Feingold was "siding with the terrorists".

Oh, and Vance? You didn't look at Rich Planty Goodness, did you? I did a massive post about the Philadelphia Flower Show over the weekend. Pthbbbt!