Clutching at straws, or in this case, clutching a Pangolin. A couple of things coincided yesterday. This little sleeping Pangolin turned 4 yesterday, I painted him when it was suggested that Pangolins might be the animal that transmitted COVID-19 to humans in a ‘wet’ market in Wuhan. Four years ago this made me a little sad, as I have always liked the idea of a Pangolin. Current thinking is that the virus came from bats via Racoon dogs. I don’t think I would ever have the urge to paint either.

Pangolins sleep in this curled-up way, which I rather like. And gives me the chance to natter on about the circularity of blogging. A friend popped by at the art gallery and talked about blog #858.

#858 theoldmortuary ponders

Blog #858 mentioned the word camoufleur. My friend is a military historian and said he was surprised to learn the word camoufleur as a profession and then crafted a sentence using the word which suggested that our current government are very good camoufleurs at hiding their lies in plain sight. A much better sentence than I had thought of when writing blog #858*

As it happens I am currently reading a book about our governments response to Covid-19 with particular focus on the NHS. An awful lot of camoufleuring going on.

And that is the circularity of joy that blogging brings me. Sharing the pleasure of a new word over a cup of coffee.

* My rather tortuous sentence using the word camoufleur talked about a designer of abstract exercise leggings camoufleuring the ‘ camels ‘oof” ( It sounds better with a French accent) or manly bulge, which can be distracting in hot yoga classes **

** Hot yoga involves lycra and a lot of sweat in strange places.

Maybe an Easter challenge could be to create a beautiful sentence, Haiku or Limerick using the word camoufleur. Open to all blog readers. I promise to publish the best.

Pangolins have been in 4 blogs. Some readers will get the chance to read all 4 after this. Other platforms see not di helpful. Below is one of them from four years ago.

Pandemic Pondering#16