• Nubbly is almost knobbly but more blunt and stubby. I got to know this word from Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Story, How The Whale Got His Throat. The whale asks the Stute Fish what man tastes of. “Nice,” says the Stute Fish. “Nice, but nubbly.”

    My computer says it comes from the 19th century word, nubble – being a stumpy, knob-like thing – but I can’t find it in any other dictionaries. I think nubble is a lovely word and should be used. Perhaps it could take on the engineer’s meaning of nipple and so relieve schoolboys of embarrassment or mirth when replacing their bicycle gear and brake cables.

    Learn a new word every day.
    Repeat it and remind yourself what it means at least three times in a day.
    Try to use the word in conversation or writing today.
    Get a dictionary and look words up.

  • One of my New Year’s resolutions is to get out a bit more. That is to get out of the studio and stretch my legs a bit. I’m sure it’s not good to sit hunched over a desk all day.

    Now that I’ve been CRBeed, I feel okay going off for a walk in the woods on my own. If I wait for everyone to decide if they are coming and get themselves togged up, it’s not worth going in the first place. So I’ve decided that going for a walk is part of my job description.

    To those of you who go to work, this may sound a bit self-indulgent, you do at least leave the house once a day. We who work at home start in the morning in our pyjamas and finish the day with our laptops in bed, feeling that we probably haven’t worked hard enough in the day.

    The only way to get out for a bit is to make it part of the job. So I will take my camera and see if I can find interesting things along the way. That makes the walk proper work.

    Of course that doesn’t stop people treating you suspiciously as a lone walker in a very suspicious hat without a dog. But hey! I’m working – so now I don’t care what they think. Isn’t positive thinking an amazing thing?

    Anyway, It was cold today and I found these wonderful frozen puddles for your joy and delectation.

  • Premier is the first in order or importance or position which is fitting for the first day of the year. Not to be confused with Premiere, which is the first performance of a play or a piece of music or anything theatrical. If you think life is one long performance, I suppose you could say that today is the premiere performance of a new year or even a new decade.

    Either way – Happy New Year!

    Learn a new word every day.
    Repeat it and remind yourself what it means at least three times in a day.
    Try to use the word in conversation or writing today.
    Get a dictionary and look words up.