Thews is an old word for the sinewy muscly manly bits in arms and legs, which are very visible and exaggerated in some William Blake's paintings, and which the ripply patterns the water makes in the sand remind me of. The ripply sand patterns aren't called thews!
Just thought I'd better clear that up, in case I misled anyone and any readers of this blog anywhere might find themselves perplexing their companions while walking on the beach by pointing downwards and remarking 'Look at those thews!'
Now. Fruit liqueurs.
Sloe gin - orange spice - quince
17 comments:
When I used "thews" in a scrabble game -- with the woman who later became my wife -- she thought I was making it up.
"You know, 'mighty thews?' Like Conan the Barbarian?" I said.
She did eventually marry me anyway, though.
Ah, Conan!
Well worth risking patronising my readers to get that anecdote, Dale!
It's just quite a few of people said they hadn't heard the word before and when I read it again in the light of that I thought it might be unclear. Tom said he didn't know it either.
Though I was very nearly seduced by the power of leading millions astray with incorrect usage, and even possibly creating a blog-originated folk etymology...
:~)
Darn.
i liked thinking i knew the name of those water tracings. And "thews" seemed to fit nicely.
I keep having to explain to my dear one about "crossword words." Like olio and oriel, okapi and nene, lea and oreo. He has come to just accept this, as I have.
It was a little unclear in your post. I had to Google it to make sure that that wasn't in fact an altrnate definition of "thews."
fergit them throbbing thews ... mine's a sloe gin !
I'd never seen the word before and did indeed think it literally meant what you pictured!
The liqueurs are gorgeous.
Word verification: larpop, which could be a new word for what's in the bottles.
is that quince gin? i wonder what that tastes like... your sloe gin is darker than ours. It's the orange spice that especially attracts me. Some of the same allure as all the gorgeous soaps you can get nowadays...
beg pardon - just took the link and discovered the answer to my first question...
lovely liquer HUES
Phew(s)!
Glad I got that sorted then...
The orange and quince liqueurs were something of a cheat, since they were made with spirits flavoured with fruit already, though I suppose you could say the same for the gin...They are both very good; the orange one is quite cloudy and will be improved by standing a while, and is perhaps more a wintry flavour anyway. The quince is a lovely surprise, slightly viscous but very clear, with all the gold colour coming from the fruit, the acidity of which balances the pear flavour in the aquavit nicely. I had some mixed with white wine and soda to very good effect yesterday.
Sloe gin recipes vary a lot, ours does perhaps use quite a lot of fruit and stands for quite a while, hence the dark colour. Commercial ones are usual paler, I think, but they may also be treated to get rid of the pectin, which can be a problem; Tom used to polish it endlessly using a compression wine filter, I just use kitchen paper then let it settle out for a bit. Pectinous tail ends of these liqueurs can always be used in cooking anyway, and are particularly good with roast pork.
what lovely colours in these bottles!
I love the patterns in the sand in your previous post too!
Oh, thank heavens! I can sleep now!
What fun!
"Thew"...
Harry Ploughman G.M.H.
'...Each limb's barrowy brawn,his thew
That onewhere curded, onewhere sucked and sank...'
I knew I'd heard that word somewhere before!
Thankyou for reminding me.
Jewel like spirits in the making, you have there.
Beautiful colours indeed - and lovely photos as usual in the previous thewy posts.
The colors are lovely but I do wish that I could smell them. And perhaps a small taste.
Post a Comment