Saturday, May 08, 2010

Pretty little plaques

When my daughter was stuck with the agony of moving me & my stuff into my small ALF apartment, she made a selection of art and artifacts from the overload at the house. Among the items that made the cut were these three Mexican plaques in the classic talavera style; they now greet me in my bathroom. And they add three words to my Spanish vocabulary. First is, of course, butterfly.

Now you know what to call a quail when south of the border.

It took a bit more work with the various search engines to verify that venada is indeed a word for deer and not just a particular member of the lepidoptra (i.e., una mariposa). In fact, I would venture to guess that it is the preferred word in Mexico, but not in Spain.

19 comments:

Antipodean Curmudgeon said...

Gracias, tres mas palabras por/para me vocabulario pequeno

Hermano

Photographe à Dublin said...

These are "darling" photos, as a Dubliner might say.

I thought to post with the bookish blog. You may find some Irish titles that take your fancy.

(Tales from the Birch Wood)

Changes in the wind said...

The plaques are so ptretty and appear to be three dimensional...glad they made the cut.

Granny J said...

bro --- your vocabulary is better than mine!

birch -- "darling" as an Aussie might say, also.

changes -- so am I (glad, that is).

Steve said...

They look very nice. What are they made of?

Omegadad said...

What's the Spanish word for 'moose'?

Happy Mom's Day,

SIL

Granny J said...

sil -- alce. Thanks!

diana said...

I love the word 'venada' for deer, it's very beautiful!

Granny J said...

steve -- I took a more careful look at one of the plaques. I would guess that the picture is printed on paper or plastic which is then pasted on one side of a Masonite oblong, after which four edge pieces are glued to the back.

diana -- and it's sufficiently like nevada (snowy) that I got a lot of nevada references when I did my search!

Steve said...

GJ, thanks for taking a look.

Meggie said...

I would not have thought Mexico would have Deer. I wonder why.
I love the plaques, they are lovely.

Anonymous said...

Am back from vacation; missed your blog. What a lovely greeting to see these plaques!

~Anon in AV.

Kathleen said...

Very fun - I like things that look like 'folk art'. They remind me of that.

Anil P said...

Such lovely plaques. I like the names too. The names are so inherently poetic.

The image rendered on the plaques reminds me of a magical world, a fairytale.

Kate/High Altitude Gardening said...

I always wondered what Mariposa meant... it's the name of my favorite restaurant, here in town.

Anonymous said...

Venada? Lepidoptra? Una mariposa?

Estoy confundido.

Steve said...

I stop by on ocassion, just to read her comments and pretend she is still with us. Makes me feel good.

Milz said...

wow these are very pretty. thanks for sharing. This would definitely add a nice accent to anyone's home.

Antipodean Curmudgeon said...

Me Too.

Hermano

 
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