Over two weeks at our house, our very big(1) house in the country(2), Mrs Botogol tells me that we have entertained 26 guests, not including the builder(3). That's a lot of wine and cider drunk (and a lot of tea as well), and plenty of conversation and much opportunity to learn the new and the unexpected.
"No", said one of our guests, "that's not how it works at all - in fact Come By means clockwise and Away means anti-clockwise"
It made so much sense. I have often wondered how sheep-dogs worked out the problem of my-left versus your-left, and there was my answer: not left and right at all, but clockwise and widdershins. Because wherever in the field you are standing my clockwise is always your.... clockwise.
Yes, with 26 guests you learn new facts like these, and by way of these facts you learn about people.
In this case about myself: for although I knew our friend was a sheep farmer, and a resourceful and self-reliant entrepreneur, and a person who is often under-estimated, even so it still didn't occur to me that she had actually trained her own sheep dog.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1) not really....
(2) the nicest thing about our house in the country is that we are in a town.
(3) there is always a builder. If you own a second house, there is always a builder.
1 comment:
Enjoy the entertaining and the interactions that come along. Below is a nice message from the last few lines of a poem titled “My Philosophy of life” by the American Poet John Ashbery
“…Still, there's a lot of fun to be had in the gaps between ideas.
That's what they're made for! Now I want you to go out there
and enjoy yourself, and yes, enjoy your philosophy of life, too.
They don't come along every day. Look out! There's a big one...”
You can access the full text at:
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15460
I like the pic you posted.
Post a Comment