Crunchy ‘Nanas

A few weeks ago Moose woke up pondering the definition of aplomb. Today, as is usual for people who think alike, I awoke considering the different uses of the word “broody”. It’s funny how you can hear something for so long and not wonder. And then finally one day wonder about what you’ve heard and then wonder why you hadn’t wondered before. In my world, the term broody immediately conjures up the image of Mr. Darcy sulking in the corner of a room, brow furrowed, unsociably dour. And yet here, broody seems to be used mostly to describe a woman ready, in the emotional sense if not also in the physiological sense, to have a child. I know, they do a lot of things ‘differently’ here. But, in this case, the use actually makes the most sense to me. Ready to breed. Broody. It works.

To me, new life is a joyous and happy occasion. Where did this other stormy connotation come from? Until today, I never questioned it. It always made sense to me in a go-with-the-flow kind of way. Broody. Moody. Similar sound, similar meaning. (Oh, I can be so easily pleased sometimes.) But, really I know, or should know, that rhyme does not always make reason. Red means something completely different to head. Glad and sad, opposites.

Thanks to the Online Etymology Dictionary, everything has fallen into place in my mind. Or, at least everything concerning the uses of broody. The roots of “brood” mean “that which is hatched by heat”. Okay, that makes sense so far, nothing new to me there. But, then it goes on to say “the verbal figurative meaning (”to incubate in the mind”) is first recorded 1571, from notion of “nursing” one’s anger, resentment, etc.” A-ha! This usage makes sense to me too.

Now, if only I could get my head round why the British use the French word aubergine for eggplant, but the Americans use an English term. Where the Americans got the English term when the British use the French term is beyond me. I guess that’s my next project: Why we can’t just all call a cookie a cookie, a trunk a trunk. Sorry, but you eat biscuits with gravy and a boot is a shoe, thank you very much.

In case you were wondering what their “friendly-faced” visages actually looked like. (I don’t have a fantastic zoom, and you can’t get too close. Rightly, they are trying to keep these animals as wild as possible. But you get the picture.)

Rewind technology and you get to the here and now. Today. As it could have been thousands of years ago. Or, at least thousands of years ago across the Channel. And without the traffic sounds in the distance and the wire fencing. Or me snapping images with my digital camera while riding my mountain bike along the well-developed National Cycle route 15.

Across the world, McDonald’s is busy with plans to hook up cashless customers with Big Macs and Egg McMuffins paid for through their cell phones. But here, the Konic ponies take me back to the past while preserving biodiversity for my future. Relatives of the now extinct ancient European wild horse, these 21st century equines chew quietly out in the field, munching the way to an environment where native species of plants, animals and insects can thrive. Where the John Deere would sink into the muck, the friendly-faced ponies graze peacefully, unaware of their duties, but performing them well all the same.

Thanks, ponies!

Tuesday’s run

Distance: 3.2 miles
Time: 29:47
Pace: 9:18 min/mile

Today’s ride

Time: 1:35:00 give or take some time snapping pictures of the ponies