The Moosey Spelling Policy
The Moosey Web-site finally has an official Spelling Policy. During a couple of recent rainy days I decided to do some web-weeding. How embarrassing! I found soooooooo many silly spelling mistakes...
Gardener Burning, Sowing Seeds, and Digging
So I immediately set up a system of self-fines - one dollar per mistake, to be paid to a local charity.
My main mistakes consisted of the use of a single or a double letter - was I 'shovelling' or merely 'shoveling' for all those tedious hours? Then some blame goes to the upstairs computer keyboard, which loses the letter 'i' unless I punch at it fortissimo.
Gardener Writing
Gardener's Journal
Thus I've found myself doing a lot of 'weedng, rakng, and prunng'. And, of course, 'writng' in my journal. Hmm... Texters may not notice the difference!
Since I've grown up with Queen Elizabeth's English, American versus British spelling differences don't count. Colours or colors? I use the former.
Intelligible?
Spelling aside, I try to be intelligible to readers from out of New Zealand, and not use words with local meanings. 'Cat pottles'(which I use to sow my spring seeds in) seemed to puzzle one northern hemisphere reader. The Moosey 'water race' always gets a tiny, polite explanation.
Sorry About My French
And French accents cannot be scripted successfully, so the eagle-eyed will have to make do with lots of non-acute apres-gardening!
My Pecky Rooster
Home-Made Words
I'm allowed to make up words. I will often hyphenate them or put them in quotes. But obviously even readers with minimal imagination should instinctively know what they mean. Examples are 'pecky' and 'cat-nanny'. Does anyone not know what a 'pecky' rooster is?
Personal Words
This is a personal web-site, so delicate expletives like 'Aargh!' and 'Eek!' are OK. So, too, are informal reactions to the approaching winter ("Brr') and expressions of self-crossness ('Humph').
Use the Spell-Checker?
Use the spell-checker? The garden nature of my twittering causes the problems here. Favourite plants like Pittosporums are unrecognised - I haven't bothered to updated my checker's vocabulary dictionary. So after applying the spell-checker, a typical nursery shrub-shopping list would consist of :
- A spring-flowering weasel, a large chromium Texan, and some native cookies.
Can you guess what the *list* should have contained? You'll have to know the names of some New Zealand shrubs to answer. And my flower garden would look rather interesting - it would contain lots of :
- purple pentagons and pink lavatories.
These flowers might be easier to work out! And whenever I thought I was 'manuring' the garden I would in fact be maturing it - close, but not close enough...
Phormium Tenax
My Spelling Pledge
So I'm weeding out the errors, and I've made my dollar-a-mistake pledge. So far I've raised (ouch!) a hundred and forty dollars. I'll keep checking. I'll double the fine if anyone finds a bona fide spelling mistake and mails me immediately!
Footnote
If there is seriously anyone out there who doesn't know what a 'cat-lounge' is, I can only surmise that you must be 'catless'...
*Answers
So how did you get on deciphering my spell-checker? Here's my shrub list - Weigela, Phormium tenax, Corokias. While those beautiful flowers in the garden are, of course, purple Penstemons and pink Lavateras. Such a great combination!