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:

  1. Gracias, tres mas palabras por/para me vocabulario pequeno

    Hermano

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  2. 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)

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

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  4. bro --- your vocabulary is better than mine!

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

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

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  5. They look very nice. What are they made of?

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  6. What's the Spanish word for 'moose'?

    Happy Mom's Day,

    SIL

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  7. sil -- alce. Thanks!

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

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  9. 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!

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  10. GJ, thanks for taking a look.

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

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  12. Anonymous2:40 PM

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

    ~Anon in AV.

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

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  14. 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.

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

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  16. Anonymous9:22 AM

    Venada? Lepidoptra? Una mariposa?

    Estoy confundido.

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

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

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