About yesterday...

[heliopausa]

Sorry to anyone perplexed by my putting up the wrong link about politics yesterday; I've gone back and fixed it now.  :)

Also about yesterday's post:  the move I mentioned to sell off public land in the US, which stank to high heaven, has apparently seemed too bad even for the current climate there - or was it that hunters and shooters threw their

Comments

[asakiyume]

Three cheers for World Wetlands Day!

What would the world be, once bereft
Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left,
O let them be left, wildness and wet;
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.

[heliopausa]

Oh, lovely! Thank you! :)

[asakiyume]

(not me but Gerard Manley Hopkins--which you probably know--but I should have put an attribution in there)

[heliopausa]

Yes, I knew - but a wonderful reminder, and may now make it into a conference presentation this weekend. :) Also, I love the wet, weedy photo that went with it. (How outrageous, that "wet" and "weedy" are seen as terms of opprobrium!)

[sovay]

the move I mentioned to sell off public land in the US, which stank to high heaven, has apparently seemed too bad even for the current climate there - or was it that hunters and shooters threw their voice into the protests?

The latter seems to have been a real factor and I am really, really glad. I didn't think of it before it happened, but of course the hunting-and-fishing sportsmen types would be deeply invested in the idea of preserving and maintaining an American wilderness. I hope they and the conservationists can start talking to each other: they have coaligned interests. Finding allies where you can right now is critical.

(What a gorgeous word, by the way! - quag-mire. Is it that the ground quakes, do you think, or does quag refer to its sticky, sucking character?).

It is disputed by the OED!

But leaving the words, lovely as they are, and just thinking about the wetlands themselves - places betwixt and between, and so which feel mysterious and not quite in our ken - and thus in turn have given us so much, much wonderful

[heliopausa]

Absolutely yes, about allies.

And thank you, and thank you for the etymology! It was fun to see where my guess came close, and where it didn't. I really enjoy the way languages shift and grow.

[changeling72]

I picked-up the work 'quagmire' from Mum!

[heliopausa]

It's a great word - but then I find all those words evocative. :)