We met a friend this evening whose words of welcome reflect the subject of this blog.” I saw some really blousy flowers the other day and thought of you”It’s hard to know how to respond to that but as luck would have it I have some bold flower pictures to share, as the same friend has some expertise in identifying bee bottoms so I forgive her for the blousy comment.
Today is the day in our corner of South East Cornwall. The Artichokes have burst forth their pollen coated flowers and bees are all over the place, apparently this is a buff bottomed bee. There were many bees of buff bottom fame.
Wikipedia suggests they are called White Tailed Beewhich is far less exciting.What is exciting is that we also had a Cornish Black Bee.
The Artichokes are a gorgeous blaze of hot summer pink at the moment. They will get bluer in a day or two, some summers they deepen to a Klein or Majorelle Blue.When the Artichokes get bluer they tend to attract red-tailed bees. Something to look forward to later in the week.Meanwhile back to Blousy. I’m not sure Artichokes quite fit the bill.
But they do have an essence of blousy. If an artichoke walked into a bar it would expect to be noticed. Not because of the unusualness of a walking artichoke obviously, but because it has a provocative way about it, it looks like a good- time plant, the plant that knows where the after party is and is confident it will brazen its way passed the bouncers into the VIP area.Very Impressive Plant.
they are beautiful, and ‘blousy’ is a very odd descriptor
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It is odd and possibly no longer PC but it describes a sense of self awareness and confidence that I can admire
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❤
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I’m sticking my nose in here I know but I wonder if it could be blowsy? A blowsy blousy flower? And I love all the bees.
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Oh my goodness, that’s intriguing. Even less PC! The friend was a newspaper editor ( The Times, London) I will ask her.
When I think of a blousy man I think of Nureyev wearing an enormous blouse in the seventies, it translates into outrageous fuschias. Blowsy certainly takes it down a notch. Thanks for a whole new line of pondering.
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I love words (I used to read the dictionary when I was young, really, I know it’s crazy, and when I learned about the thesaurus…Well, that I still do read. ) The more words the merrier, the more things that can be expressed. Plus I just like the look of Blowsy, it fits its meaning, I think.
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I have the same Thesaurus that I had 50 years ago, I love it. I used to spend days in Libraries . I agree Blowsy is lovely . Could it be one of those words where spelling was deliberately changed by the U.S
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Interesting question. But I don’t think it’s a spelling thing, I think they are completely different words. I say this because each has a dicitonary entry and with different definitions (I checked when I read your post because I had never thought of blousy and blowsy before). It seems many women of less than stellar reputations are described as blowsy in a lot of old detective fiction I read, always seems that the landlady is blowsy. For some reason I then picture her in a wrinkled housedress and red lipstick, aplied a slight bit off kilter. Well, TMI, as they say, but words are pictures to me. Blousy, now, that’s a buxom white shirt with just a few too many ruffles, coming untucked at the waist in the back.
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