Yule-tide is an archaic term for the festival of Christmas. Yule is just a shortened form of that. A Yule-log is either a real log, or one made from cake and covered in chocolate. Guess which is my favourite! (Coincidentally, the next word in my dictionary is 'yummy') Traditionally a yule-log really big piece of … Continue reading Wednesday word of the week – Yule

A couloir is a steep, narrow gully on a mountainside. It's also a marvellous excuse to post yet another picture from my Scotland trips (only 7,346 to go and you'll have seen them all) It might not actually be of a couloir, but it's definitely a mountainside. Or a hill. Anyway, there was steepness involved.

A gaff can be either one of two horrible sounding fishing implements, or a slang term for a person's home. Gaff can also mean a plan or secret, most often used in the phrase 'don't blow the gaff' which is similar to not letting the cat out of the bag. (English is fun, isn't it?) Don't make the gaffe of adding … Continue reading Wednesday word of the week – Gaff

Quadrifid means to have four divisions or lobes. This akebia quinata has three parts to the flowers and five to the leaves - so that averages out right. It also smells quite nice and grows like a triffid.

A while ago I wanted a one word alternative to 'only child' and discovered monogene. The word isn't in my dictionary and doesn't seem to have one clear definition, but being the only begotten child is one alternative. It can also mean unique, special and one of a kind. Much as I love my brother now, … Continue reading Wednesday word of the week – Monogene

An alpinist is a climber of high mountains (generally, but not necessarily the Alps). I'm not an alpinist. I don't know if there's a word for climbers of not very high mountains, only when it's sunny, the path doesn't look too treacherous and regular stops are permitted, but if there is, I'm one of them.

Specious means either misleadingly attractive or superficially plausible, but actually wrong. Custard made with salt instead of sugar would add speciosity to your trifle. An example of speciousness is the specious claim that as chocolate is dervived from plants, a family sized bar of Aero counts as one of your five a day. That's only true if you choose the orange flavoured … Continue reading Wednesday word of the week – Specious

A monticule is a small hill. Sounds rather friendly, doesn't it? The sort of place you'd walk up to enjoy a picnic involving ginger beer and home made cake. A monticule can also be a mini mound caused by a volcano. Here's the view from a hill (quite a big one) I climbed up one summer. Recognise it? Clue … Continue reading Wednesday word of the week – Monticule

Umbriferous means providing shade. The depth of Lydford Gorge would make it a pleasantly shady place to walk in summer, even without the umbriferous canopy of vegetation.