Red Noses, Looks Like Rain Dear, Treat With Care & Wonderful Words

Taken from Lynne’s weekly column ‘Green Scene’ for the Western Mail
23^rd December 2023

Red Noses

So we can nearly touch Christmas on the nose now – a chapped, red nose, if the amount of colds and coughs doing the rounds are anything to go by.  Perhaps that’s why the reindeers had red glowing noses.

Surprisingly behind this ‘assumption’ there is a little truth. Reindeers have a very clever adaptation, which helps them survive the extreme weather conditions. Their noses are full of blood vessels which cool the warm air down as it leaves the body and warms the cold air up as it enters their system – keeping the reindeers brain constantly warm and active in the most challenging of weathers.

So when seen through a thermal imaging camera, reindeer’s noses are actually red. I wonder if it’s the same for gardeners.

Looks Like Rain Dear

Christmas time is always a ‘marker’ for missing those not with us any longer. I always used to decorate a tree or stem of Brussels sprouts in my piggy field for my two pet pigs, Frank and Edna. And they did very well from neighbour’s veggie peelings over Christmas.  Occasionally I think of re-homing another porky pair but still can’t quite face the inevitable heartbreak that comes with it all.

When I was in Iceland I had ‘wild thoughts’ about giving a pair of reindeer a good home and during a trip to Egypt I nearly bought a small camel when I discovered that I could put it on my Visa card.  I was already planning the camel (and reindeer) treks through the beautiful Welsh countryside.  Needless to say I was, and have been, dissuaded – so far.

One of the things that put me off was the fact that camel’s feet can rot in very wet weather, so obviously not designed for Welsh winters.  In clever contrast, reindeer hooves actually expand in summer when the ground is soft and shrink in winter when the ground is hard.  That sounds a lot like my own feet.

Reindeer knees also make a clicking noise in order for them to be able to stay together in a blizzard – so do my knees!  Perhaps I am part reindeer.

Treat With Care

A recent study found that ‘chocolate is good for you’ – handy timing just before Christmas! But it has to be the ‘right kind’, according to Professor Tim Spector, who runs the Zoe personalised nutrition scheme.  Chocolate is only a ‘health food’ if it’s over 70% cocoa as dark chocolate is packed full of fibre and polyphenols, which are strong antioxidants.  The study of 20,000 people found that those who had cocoa every day were 27% less likely to die of heart disease than a placebo group.

But please remember that chocolate is not good for our dogs – and contrary to humans, the darker the chocolate the more toxic it is for our four-legged friends.

Holiday times are often busier times for vets as our pets consume foods that they shouldn’t.  As tempting as it might be to ‘treat’ them at Christmas, please remember that they’re nutritional needs and tolerances are much different to ours.  You wouldn’t want to share your dog’s Markies, so please don’t share your treats with them.

Other foods that are particularly harmful over the festive period include mince pies, Christmas pudding, onions, garlic and leeks, (anything in the allium family), anything containing Xylitol (a sweetener), cooked bones, nutmeg, blue cheese and nuts.  In a ‘nutshell’ it is prudent to keep all of your food out of the reach of dogs – and also handbags!  At the time of year where you my have more visitors than usual, some curious or food-orientated dogs will ‘rifle’ through a handbag and I have heard horror stories of them even eating people’s medication.

If in any doubt, do have a look on the various advice given online with regard to festive foods – you will be surprised at the amount of foods that are not suitable for our furry friends.  Even turkey skin is very fatty and can upset some sensitive furry tummies. It may sound a bit dramatic but prevention is far better than cure.

Wonderful Words

I love learning new things and last week, I learned that ‘apricity’ is the word to describe the warmth of winter sun. Other winter-words and phrases that you may not have heard include ‘ice-legs’ – the wintery walking-on-ice equivalent of sea-legs. If you’ve found your ice-legs then you are particularly good at walking on icy surfaces without falling over.

Crule is one that I can identify with – meaning ‘to shiver with cold’ and an ‘ice bolt’ is an old fashioned word for a sudden, sharp stab of cold.  Both definitely require more ‘mufflements’ – thick, warm, insulating clothes.

An aquabob is an 18th-century word for an icicle, which can also be called an ‘ice-drop’ . A drop of water from an icicle is either an icelet or a meldrop and a snowball is also known as a ‘snow apple.’

One of my favourites is ‘snow-bones’, which are the lines of snow or ice left at the sides of roads after the rest of the snow has melted. And I love ‘snow blossom’ and ‘spangles’, the old fashioned words for snow flakes.

‘Snow-broth’ is a 17th-century word – and fabulous description – for the water released by melting snow and a single flake of snow, that is large enough to stick to your clothes, is known as a ‘clart’.

The wonderful onomatopoeic word ‘shurl’ is used to describe the snow sliding off a roof after it begins to thaw and possibly the best of all is a ‘hogamadog’ – when you roll a snowball through a field of snow and it slowly gets bigger and bigger.

Why not have some fun during the festivities creating some of your own wintery or festive words.  What about Gratiyule – gratitude at Christmas time – something I have for all my readers. Thank you for reading my column and for all your lovely emails.  Have a Contentmas – contented Christmas – and I’ll see you on the other side. x