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Re: Enid Blyton's Weekly Letters in Teachers World

Posted: 12 Apr 2017, 20:28
by Rob Houghton
I always thought 'green thumb' was an American saying, so it seems odd to hear Enid call it that. I more often hear that someone has 'green fingers'! :D

Re: Enid Blyton's Weekly Letters in Teachers World

Posted: 12 Apr 2017, 20:54
by Courtenay
Hmmm, yes, according to the Oxford dictionary, the British term is "green fingers" and the North American term is "green thumb". I'd heard both growing up in Australia and had no idea there were transatlantic differences over which of a gardener's digits are supposed to be green!

Interesting that Enid obviously knew and used the term "green thumb" as far back as the 1930s, despite not being American — I wonder where the saying actually originated and what the earliest version of it was? Here's the best I could find on the web, from an American site: http://www.word-detective.com/2009/09/green-thumb/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It seems no-one has found any really likely explanation of how the saying came about in the first place. I always assumed it's because plants are green and a good gardener could be assumed to have a sort of "green" magic in his or her fingers (or thumbs) that makes things grow well! :lol:

This excerpt is interesting, though:
The answer to “Why the thumb?” is simple on one level. It isn’t just a “green thumb.” In Britain, they speak of a gifted gardener having “green fingers,” although “green thumb” is also commonly heard. “Green fingers” first appeared in the 1930s, followed about ten years later by “green thumb.”
Obviously "green thumb" was a known expression in Britain before the 1940s, as Enid knew it! :wink:

Re: Enid Blyton's Weekly Letters in Teachers World

Posted: 12 Apr 2017, 21:02
by Anita Bensoussane
A chatty letter from Enid as always. I'd love to see Gillian's wind-up lamb. Funnily enough, I've actually heard the phrase "green thumb" more often than "green fingers"! I had to laugh at Bobs' shenanigans!

Re: Enid Blyton's Weekly Letters in Teachers World

Posted: 13 Apr 2017, 10:06
by Moonraker
Kate Mary wrote: Thanks to Tony for putting up the letters again this week.
After I posted on Facebook that Tony was taking a break. :roll:

Re: Enid Blyton's Weekly Letters in Teachers World

Posted: 13 Apr 2017, 13:07
by Tony Summerfield
Moonraker wrote:
Kate Mary wrote: Thanks to Tony for putting up the letters again this week.
After I posted on Facebook that Tony was taking a break. :roll:
I am, but the letters don't involve any scanning as they are all already on my computer. I did scan the stories for Rob's thread as I thought it would be selfish of me to make a complete mess of someone else't thread, I also said that if anyone sends me anything I will certainly load it - but that doesn't often happen which is why you can see 'Updated January 27' at the top of the page.

Re: Enid Blyton's Weekly Letters in Teachers World

Posted: 13 Apr 2017, 13:22
by Rob Houghton
Tony Summerfield wrote: I did scan the stories for Rob's thread as I thought it would be selfish of me to make a complete mess of someone else't thread,
And it was very much appreciated - by me at any rate! ;-)

Re: Enid Blyton's Weekly Letters in Teachers World

Posted: 13 Apr 2017, 13:41
by Moonraker
I'll let you off then Tony. Yes, Rob; I must get around to your thread at some point. :)

Re: Enid Blyton's Weekly Letters in Teachers World

Posted: 13 Apr 2017, 15:03
by floragord
What a lovely letter and poem, just right for the time of year. I only came across the term "green thumb" quite recently in an American book, I'd only heard of green fingers before. After several years high above the sea I've just got back to full scale gardening and will soon see if my fingers have held on to their previous green standards and make the garden grow :D

Re: Enid Blyton's Weekly Letters in Teachers World

Posted: 19 Apr 2017, 07:48
by Anita Bensoussane
http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/blyt ... perid=1053" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I love it when Enid Blyton talks about birds. Today she writes about a chaffinch singing its heart out and about how the children of Ringsfield School in Beccles, Suffolk, have already heard a cuckoo. Like her, I haven't yet seen a swallow - or a swift. It's sad to hear of the ducks being cruelly treated by a small boy and I like the way Enid talks of her readers as her "friends" and says she knows that none of them would find it fun to injure a wild creature. Such comments would have helped bring out the best in her readers, who would surely have wanted to live up to the image she had of them.

An enjoyable flower puzzle. It took me a while to think what number 2 was.

Enid mentions that she's writing on 7th April, suggesting that her letters are typically written about twelve days in advance of publication.

Re: Enid Blyton's Weekly Letters in Teachers World

Posted: 19 Apr 2017, 17:40
by John Pickup
I haven't heard the cuckoo yet either, but I don't expect to until the end of April at least. I'm lucky in that one always turns up in a small copse of trees just off the river bank near to my house. Sometimes one will sit on the telephone wire at the end of the bowling green where I play in the summer as if he's watching us play.
Bobs doesn't miss a trick, wanting to sell his fur to the birds. :D

Re: Enid Blyton's Weekly Letters in Teachers World

Posted: 19 Apr 2017, 19:24
by Daisy
I have heard chaffinches but have never made out the "Chip-chip-chip-cherry..."etc. which I learned off by heart when I first read Secret Island!

Re: Enid Blyton's Weekly Letters in Teachers World

Posted: 19 Apr 2017, 19:37
by Kate Mary
I've occasionally wondered how long it was from Enid writing the column to its publication, now I know.

This letter with Enid enjoying the sunshine and birdsong is particularly charming, it's good that these letters are seeing the light of day again after 84 years.

Re: Enid Blyton's Weekly Letters in Teachers World

Posted: 19 Apr 2017, 19:46
by sixret
I have solved all Flowers Puzzle(some with the help of Google) except no. 6. Could someone help me, please?

Re: Enid Blyton's Weekly Letters in Teachers World

Posted: 19 Apr 2017, 19:51
by Daisy
sixret wrote:I have solved all Flowers Puzzle(some with the help of Google) except no. 6. Could someone help me, please?
Forgetmenot

Here's what my father wrote in my autograph book when I was quite a little girl:

When to the flowers so beautiful
The Father gave a name,
Back came a little blue-eyed one,
All timidly it came.
And standing at the Father's feet
And gazing in His face.
It said in low and trembling tones,
With sweet and gentle grace,
“Dear Lord, the name Thou gavest me
Alas, I have forgot.”
Then kindly looked the Father down,
And said “Forget-ME- not.”

Re: Enid Blyton's Weekly Letters in Teachers World

Posted: 19 Apr 2017, 20:13
by sixret
Thank you, Daisy. :D

It is a lovely poem. :D