Taraxicum officinale - 24 September 2025

All families must have a secret language. Ours did and has. Some of the language involved mispronouncing words. Our youngest daughter used to say coleváccion instead of calefacción for home heating. My Rosemary mispronounced words on purpose. I remembered her con-few-zed today when I saw this lonely dandelion growing on my lane. Does it not know it’s fall? I had to smile and scan it for this blog.

There were other words that we used in our continuous approach to using two languages in what we called Spanglish. Our first Vancouver cat we named Gaticuchi. Cuchi is an endearing word in Mexican Spanish. Because my Rosemary had a handsome (donde la espalda pierde su nombre my grandmother would say or where your back loses its name) I often called her Coluchi. Sometimes it was Mamuchi. Because my Rosemary became a grandmother my daughters and granddaughters adopted the shortened Abi instead of abuelita. Somehow I escaped the grandfather epithet as I am still Papi and sometimes Papuchi. Our daughters were Alejandruchi and Hilaruchi.

My two cats, Niño and Niña I baby talk in Spanish. He is Niño Muchi and she is Niña Muchi. Sometimes I call Niño when I want him to come home Muchi-Muchi, or Puchi.

Not all the puchis are nice. In Mexico when you don't like some food you say, "¡Fuchi!"