When I opened one of the hatches late the other evening, a couple of bolshy swans glid over to investigate. The river was empty except for me and them, and a few drakes splashing around by the boat next door
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only in that (and remember I am of Welsh ancestry and an erratic student of yr hen iaith) your description of the geese noises sounds like older women speaking Welsh.
Although I suppose that geese of any nationality sound like older women speaking whatever language...
Oh, I see! Yes, geese honking does sound like old women gossiping. And I think the north Welsh accent sometimes sounds like gossip too.
This pair of mute swans was quite different, though - they were making really nasal grunting, sniggering noises. They really did sound remarkably like Beavis and Butthead :-)
I would so love to visit your boat sometime... They filled in all the canals around Boston (Masssachusetts, USA) many years ago, so no nifty houseboats for us.
[When I visited Galway a few years ago, the flocks of swans were being anything but elegant, mostly sounding like big flocks of old women, and fighting over food the touristy-tourists were throwing at them.]
Swans will certainly do almost anything for food. I once watched one that was being chased by a 12ft pole with a hook on the end. Suddenly it saw bread being thrown to it and turned round, braving the pole again to reach the bread. It was caught the second time. To be fair, it was caught regularly so may have known that being caught wasn't particularly unpleasant.
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only in that (and remember I am of Welsh ancestry and an erratic student of yr hen iaith) your description of the geese noises sounds like older women speaking Welsh.
Although I suppose that geese of any nationality sound like older women speaking whatever language...
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This pair of mute swans was quite different, though - they were making really nasal grunting, sniggering noises. They really did sound remarkably like Beavis and Butthead :-)
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I would so love to visit your boat sometime... They filled in all the canals around Boston (Masssachusetts, USA) many years ago, so no nifty houseboats for us.
[When I visited Galway a few years ago, the flocks of swans were being anything but elegant, mostly sounding like big flocks of old women, and fighting over food the touristy-tourists were throwing at them.]
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To be fair, it was caught regularly so may have known that being caught wasn't particularly unpleasant.
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It's all delightful, but the word that made me wheeze with the heartiest amusement was 'glid'.
Thank you Nell! You RULE!
Love Cathy
PS Fear not, I'm getting a long-overdue inhaler tomorrow.
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