A Gaggle of Geese and Other Assortments

 Today is our young friend Veer's birthday.  She was baptized about a year ago, and we adore her.  She has been tremendously busy lately with her studies and has had to back off most of the Family Home Evenings and Institute nights.  We understand.  Uni - as everyone calls it is difficult, and at this time of year very time-consuming.

We drove over and delivered a small cake to her and a card.  We called when we got close and she came out to the car.  She looks happy and that makes us happy.  

We had a mission Zoom call this evening.  Dave said that the word on the street is that the lockdown will - indeed - end on December 2.  But we will go back into the tier system again.  If that is the case, Oxford had just begun tier 2, which means no intermixing of households.  We might as well be on lockdown!  But the good news is that churches will be open, as will businesses, museums and non-essential shops.  That will be a blessing if it happens.

I would love to start having small groups here again several times a week, but Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister said that it will probably be spring before the tier system will be eased off.  That is a long time yet.

We stopped at a large grocery store to buy a few items so that I can make some carrot cakes, one-serving size.  I have some cute little aluminum pans that come with lids.  They look like take-out containers.  I am going to make some carrot cake, some chocolate cake, and some lemon cake and deliver them over the new few days to our YSAs with a note of appreciation for them.

Last night, our Family Home Evening game was quite enjoyable.  We were each told to go find 2 objects to present to the group.  We would speak about each as though we are great enthusiasts, passionate about the objects, but only one would be legitimate.  The other would be something we have no great feelings for.  I grabbed a book out of the book case called "British Birds," with illustrations and information that makes me yawn.

When it came to be my turn, I thought I did a commendable job of sounding like a newly interested bird watcher.  When it came time for them to question me, one of them said, "Did you call the geese that flew over your head a herd?' Ouch.  That brought a great laugh.  I knew it wasn't a herd, but just couldn't come up with gaggle at that moment.  It is still funny as I think about their reactions.

It started one of those funny funny group conversations that can only happen in some place like Oxford.  As soon as they settled that the proper term is "gaggle," they began shooting out terms for groups of animals.

A convocation of eagles

A murder of crows

A tower of giraffes

A bloat of hippopotami

A parliament of owls

A barrel of monkeys

A crash of rhinoceroses

An unkindness of ravens

And on it went for a couple of minutes.  They were so cute I wish I had recorded it.

Of course we would be able to use none of those adjectives if the animals knew they weren't supposed to be meeting in groups.



Comments

Lia said…
Haha! No one has informed the gaggles, parliaments, etc. of the tier system.Thr gaggle story was very funny. I've never heard of a bloat of hippopotami! That is so great.
November 28, 2020 at 6:35 PM
melissa said…
Hahaha!! Leave it to the smart Oxford kids to catch your wrong item by not using the term “gaggle.” Haha!!
November 28, 2020 at 7:41 PM
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