Thursday 5 August 2010

Playing with words



Sky blue pink


with finny addy borders.

This curious phrase,
used somewhat repressively to describe a colour
that you didn't much wish to discuss, as in,

'You can paint your bedroom sky blue pink for all I care,'

suddenly came back to me as I looked at these sunsets in Provence.

There were several variants on this.
Sky blue pink with purple dots, or yellow spots,
and sky blue pink with a heavenly border.
Finny addy is supposed to refer to the colour of 
dyed yellow smoked Finnan haddock, 
named after the fishing village of Findon or Finnan in Scotland.

But surely sunsets like these must have had something to do with it?


U.S readers may know the expression from 
the early 20th century stories
about an elderly rheumatic rabbit called Uncle Wiggily
by Howard R. Garis.

5 comments:

  1. I've never heard the finny addy version before ... what a wonderful expression!

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  2. Your sunset photos are glorious and I had never heard of these sayings so I found your post most interesting.

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  3. "Sky blue pink with dots"....... that took me back, as did Finnan Haddock. As a child, I would look at my plate, see the smoked yellow object of disgust and think to myself "must be Wednesday then....". (We lived in the north of Scotland for a few years). To this day I can't stand "yellow fish"........

    Your photos however, are stunning.

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  4. We could do with just a little sky blue pink here at the minute! Provence looks warm and sunny and lovely.

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  5. Oh...I do know Uncle Wiggly!

    beautiful photos--majestic!

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