Tag Archives: lockdown 2020

Creative Writing and Short Stories

Collective Names For Animals

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During Lockdown 2020, I have taken part in numerous online quizzes with friends and family, (take a look at my previous post, Lockdown 2020) and a question that has always interested me is the one where they ask the collective name for animal groups. Some of them are straightforward like a pack of wolves, but some of them are genuninely inspiring.  Here is ten of my favourite ones:

A Tower of Giraffes

This is self-explanatory, obviously eluding to the giraffe’s long neck.

A Parliament of Owls

Owls are normally solitary creatures but when seen together are known as a Parliament, which is because they are considered to be of a wise disposition.

A Lounge of Lizards

lounge-lizard

Maybe the image above is what springs to mind when you hear the term Lounge of Lizards, this is not to be confused with the noun, lounge lizard which is a man who frequents bars, cafes, hotel lounges with or in search of women….

A Flutter of Butterflies

There are several terms to describe a group of butterflies: a kaleidoscope, flight, swarm or wing, but I think a Flutter of Butterflies is by far the nicest!

An Intrusion of Cockroaches

This is probably a very apt name for a group of cockroaches as they are normally intruders and not welcome wherever they turn up.

A Murder of Crows

This is probably one of the first ones that I found out about and it is very useful to know for quizzes as it usually pops up as a question!

Geese

Geese have different names:

Geeese (General) – Flock
Geese (Flight) – Skein
Geese (Ground) – Gaggle, Herd, Corps

A Loveliness of Ladybirds

Probably one of my favourites, plus it is an alliteration which I literally love!

A Bite of Midges

Self explanatory me thinks!

A Pandemonium of Parrots

This reflects the noise a wild flock of parrots can make, the definition of pandemonium is wild uproar or noise.

So there you go, my ten favourite collective nouns for groups of animals, I hope that your favourite is in there and that you have learned something new today and who knows, it may even help you in your online virtual quiz during this Lockdown!

 

 

 

 

 

Random thoughts

Lockdown 2020

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We are now into week ….. (fill in the blank) of lockdown.

When this all started,  hubby and I decided that we would spend the time wisely, perhaps start a new hobby, be creative in the kitchen, read books and get fit.

eclairs
Eclairs hubby made – you put on pounds just looking at them!

It started out so well, hubby and I cooked up delights in the kitchen, chocolate eclairs, scones, quiche, chicken and bacon pie, strawberry gateaux, but soon it seemed like a lot of work and it duly fizzled out.

I decided to take up knitting it being a mixture of something that a nanny should do and it’s the latest trend to do, so I made myself a scarf.  Now this was more like it, so I decided to make a jumper, cue lots of cursing and sighing as the stitches got too tight and the wool knotted, so that was put aside.

The one thing that has been constant in this lockdown though is the virtual quiz. We play twice a week, on a Saturday night with friends and a Sunday night with the family. If nothing else, I feel my general knowledge has come on leaps and bounds and we have now also discovered bingo! A friend has set up a virtual bingo game every Friday night, we’ve done quite well so far, winning both times we have done it!

Another constant is Facetime, I feel like I speak more to my family and friends now than I did before all this happened. It’s especially good for the older members of the family, once you have talked them through how to switch the camera on, that is!

I have found a new hobby and it’s one I would never have thought of if some friends hadn’t told me about it, it’s watercolour painting. Some of my efforts are above. I find it quite relaxing and theraputic and so far, so good, I haven’t given up, (yet)!

Another thing that has helped to get me through this lockdown has been the humour, I love the quotes, etc., that I read about lockdown and I have highlighted them on my own Facebook pages, It’s Raining Cats and Blogs and Menopause Mayhem as these below:

All in all lockdown has had it’s ups and downs, not seeing my grandson is a definite down as he is at that age when he’s learning new things every day, but we hope that in the near future we will be able to visit, something that we took for granted not so many weeks ago.

Hopefully we’ll soon be moving to a new phase, one where we have a bit more freedom and one thing is for certain, I won’t be taking the simple things in life like going going out for a meal, going to the pictures or even food shoppoing for granted again!