Featuring Joy & Geoff, Big Brother , Little Brother , Sis , and various household (and outdoor) critters...

Tuesday 6 May 2008

Puppy Side Note...


Just in case you are wondering how we came up with the name "Hesperantha" for our new basset hound, here's the scoop:

Being a bit compulsive & always trying to cover every detail, I was really hoping we could find a name that reflected our future connection to Africa AND that paid homage to puppy's birth name, "Star"

After much googling, I found a list of plants that grow in Southern Africa (then decided that wasn't quite good enough - ideally the plants had to be native to Africa, not just grow there as well as in other parts of the world). On the list was "Hesperantha" - the evening flower. I had already come across the name Hesper, meaning "evening star" (from the Greek, Hesperos) but had not given it much attention. Needless to say, Hesperantha quickly made the short list for meeting both the "star" and the Africa criteria. It took a few more days of deliberating, then during another internet search (yes, it's a bit of a sickness) of "evening star" I stumbled on evening star-themed poetry by Poe, Blake, and Longfellow, to name a few. Well, our other dogs had literary names, and I appreciate a good classic for sure, so that pretty much confirmed it.

The end.

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