Fruitful. Syritta pipiens, Thick-thighed Singing Hoverfly on Shepherd's Purse, Capsella bursa-pastoris, and the Grote Kerk, Dordrecht, The Netherlands
Visting Dordrecht I saw on the banks of the Spui delightful small Shepherd's Purse, Capsella bursa-pastoris. Here and there - as ought to be in Spring - couples of Thick-thighed Singing Hoverflies, Syritta pipiens, being fruitful, one hopes.
In contemplation of this wonder of Nature, I immediately, of course, given this town, linked to another fruitful, major event here. In the Grote Kerk - see inset - in 1618 a Church Synod of international protestantism was convened. The theological issues caused great division in The Netherlands, but that's not my topic. Far more importantly, that Synod also commissoned a standard translation of the Bible into Dutch, the so-called Statenvertaling, comparable to the King James Version in English (1611). It wasn't until 1626 that the States-General agreed to the Synod's request and though the translation (from Hebrew and Greek) was ready in 1635 it took the government until 1637 to agree to (and to underwrite) its printing. Once printed that Statenvertaling not only served to standardise the Dutch language - almost everyone at some point used it or at least understood its phrasing - but much of its language provided catch-phrases still used today (often without the speaker realising it). Thus it became highly fruitful for Dutch literature, poetry, prose and any other kind alike.
And the name of our plant, Shepherd's Purse, brings to mind as well how the language of that Statenvertaling, stimulated and expounded by the protestant Shepherds of the Word, became known as the "Tale Kanaäns", the language of faith, often recognisable even if the speakers don't know it themselves.
But our Hoverflies merely sing without words! and are fruitfully multiplying.
Fruitful. Syritta pipiens, Thick-thighed Singing Hoverfly on Shepherd's Purse, Capsella bursa-pastoris, and the Grote Kerk, Dordrecht, The Netherlands
Visting Dordrecht I saw on the banks of the Spui delightful small Shepherd's Purse, Capsella bursa-pastoris. Here and there - as ought to be in Spring - couples of Thick-thighed Singing Hoverflies, Syritta pipiens, being fruitful, one hopes.
In contemplation of this wonder of Nature, I immediately, of course, given this town, linked to another fruitful, major event here. In the Grote Kerk - see inset - in 1618 a Church Synod of international protestantism was convened. The theological issues caused great division in The Netherlands, but that's not my topic. Far more importantly, that Synod also commissoned a standard translation of the Bible into Dutch, the so-called Statenvertaling, comparable to the King James Version in English (1611). It wasn't until 1626 that the States-General agreed to the Synod's request and though the translation (from Hebrew and Greek) was ready in 1635 it took the government until 1637 to agree to (and to underwrite) its printing. Once printed that Statenvertaling not only served to standardise the Dutch language - almost everyone at some point used it or at least understood its phrasing - but much of its language provided catch-phrases still used today (often without the speaker realising it). Thus it became highly fruitful for Dutch literature, poetry, prose and any other kind alike.
And the name of our plant, Shepherd's Purse, brings to mind as well how the language of that Statenvertaling, stimulated and expounded by the protestant Shepherds of the Word, became known as the "Tale Kanaäns", the language of faith, often recognisable even if the speakers don't know it themselves.
But our Hoverflies merely sing without words! and are fruitfully multiplying.