Tropicals & Tender Perennials: Holly's yellow brug ..unamed, 0 by PlanterRik

PlanterRik wrote:
I like Carena's translation - Cherchez la femme = Booty Call! You asked for the pronunciation - /shair-shay la fehm/ is pretty close, give or take a dipthong.

It's one of those expressions that is so colored by the culture that it doesn't come off very well in other languages. Scooterbug's comments are good, though something makes me doubt that Dumas fils was the first Frenchman to use it!

Abutilon's literal translation is accurate: "Look for the woman." "The woman," here, refers to an abstract or ideal, rather than to any one woman.

Cherchez la femme is a cliché that is tossed off with humor, for example, as encouragement when a guy is feeling the lack of female companionship, or with sarcasm when a guy is too overtly on the prowl. You won't hear it from young people; it's very dated.

--change of subject--

About the chickens: In the last couple of months, I've started combining beautiful ground birds with my gardening. I'm enclosing the terrace that is lined on one side with bird and butterfly plantings and on the other with roses, lilies and irises mixed in a cutting garden, with tall totem-trellises in between, and I'm turning it into a bird garden. I'm putting in a little artificial pond (~250-300 gallons) for a small group of beautiful little ducks. My favorite so far is a little Mandarin that arrived untamed and is slowly allowing me to come closer. He is struggling with his natural fear of humans because he craves attention. He looks for me and whistles for me and coos when I'm near (but not too near), and, when I coo back, he wags his tail like a puppy. I've finally figured out how to use my digital camera, but I don't have any of him yet. The pic below is from a great wildfowl site http://www.kamileron.com though I still don't know what language it's in.

Besides ornamental ducks (mainly various teals), I'm slowly locating the Asian pheasants I've always found so beautiful. Impeyans, Goldens and white peafowl are settling in, and I'm waiting for silvers, Swinhoes, Temminck's tragopans, Siamese firebacks and Lady Amhersts to arrive in the next few weeks.