Sunday, January 19, 2014

You can do it!


Granddaughter is at the stage of not quite being able to crawl, but managing to move around in a sprawl/squirm sort of way.

The other day, Grandson was watching her with interest as she struggled to push herself towards a toy.

"Go on, [Granddaughter]," he said encouragingly. "You can do it!"

Let's hope that he's always such a supportive big brother - such as in (I'd estimate) about two weeks' time when she hurls herself at his Brio train layout and grabs handfuls of it.

As for "through in the west" - I wonder if we say that because Scotland is a little country. It's only about sixty-five miles from Edinburgh in the east to Glasgow in the west so you go "through" to the west just like you'd go through the house. Or, to add another element, you might go "ben the hoose", as some people still say. A but and ben is a two-roomed cottage, the "but" being the first room you come to and the "ben" being the bedroom beyond. So going "ben" means going further into the house. "Come ben," a Scots speaker might say whatever size of house they lived in - just meaning to come into the main part of the house.

These aren't words that I'd normally use but my pupils in the comprehensive school I taught in during the 1970s in a mining village near Edinburgh did say "ben" quite a lot. And of course also "ken", which means "know" or "you know". So: "Ken that homework you wanted us to do? Well, the dog ate it."



7 comments:

  1. Ha! Funny how dogs have a never ending appetite for homework!

    Little granddaughter is delightful!

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  2. Removed my first comment for too many typos.

    In the US we don't say "come through" in a house. I've noticed this in some UK videos. We say come into the living room, family room, kitchen, etc...

    Odd, these small differences, but not really surprising. In my part of Ohio we have some older Scottish expressions because we had so many early pioneers who were from Scotland or were Scotch-Irish.

    Oh, your grandson is so sweet to encourage his sister! But he doesn't see the future as well as you do!

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  3. I so enjoy the photos of your grandchildren. Mine are all grown up now.

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  4. Ooh, she's almost off! I am remembering the ways my children used. One of them used her crossed arms to propel herself forward. Another used a half-sitting position and her arms to get along. Quite fetching, it was!

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  5. Yes I know the expression ken - because of the song we sang when little about John Peel.

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  6. Little granddaughter is getting so big. You must have such a wonderful time watching the two of them together. You would be completely forgiven if you gave up quilting altogether and just spent your time watching the babies!!!

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  7. Anonymous7:52 pm

    I think that I have now caught up with your posts, at last.

    What a sweet thing for Grandson to say to Grand-daughter, sweet boy.

    I loved your post on the tiles, I recall seeing something similar in butcher's shops in Wales. They are lovely.

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