Many moons ago, the then Princess Anne, now Princess Royal, went on a tour of somewhere. At the end of the day, the civic dignitaries asked for her thoughts on the day. She responded that she’d found the experience truly awful. Spelt “aweful” though these days the “e” is rarely used in the spelling. Consternation resulted until she explained that the word meant inspiring, full of awe, impressive, amazing. She was truly full of awe at what she’d seen. There are lots of words in the English language that have opposite meanings. There are other words that mean different things in different places. School children in the UK regularly carry rubbers with them when they go to school. Americans call them “erasers” and, for them, “rubber” has a totally different meaning.

Another word in the English language which has multiple meanings is “nemesis.” Sometimes I like playing with words. The name “Nemesia” comes from the same root. It’s now a rarely used girls’ name meaning quick-minded or sensitive, among other qualities. In Roman times it was a boys’ name that wasn’t kind, signifying punishment of the gods. It’s also a plant. And it sounds like a brand of pest killer.

And it’s the name of a goddess, usually portrayed as the agent of divine punishment for wrongdoing or presumption (hubris). A nemesis isn’t necessarily your arch-enemy, your destroyer. It can also mean someone who brings you down a peg or two or teaches you a lesson in humility. Which is what a certain Gill has done for me. I now know how hard it is to try (and how easy it is to fail) to blog on a daily basis. It was so easy to take her daily posts for granted.

Though in my defence, I only have one garden to blog about. I’ve had to get creative.

It’s also interesting that I’m getting upwards of 50 people visiting my blog each day now. But just a few comments on each post. What I’m getting more is messages on Twitter, even emails. It seems people are put off by the fact that they have to identify themselves to comment on blogs. This is a particular issue when it comes to blogs on the Google platforms (Blogger, Blogspot). People just don’t want to give Google any more information about themselves. So, fellow bloggers, don’t be put off by the lack of comments. You probably have far more regular readers than you realise.

And there was another play on words in yesterday’s post. Several messages from other fellas got the joke. There’s a clue. I wonder will those of the female sex now “get it”. Tomorrow, I will reveal all.

This post is part of my “Fill the Gill Heavens Gap” series. Gill is currently vacationing in a derelict badger sett and subsisting on a diet of cheese and onion crisps and protesting (too much methinks) that this diet is not inducing flatulence. Normal service will be resumed over at Off the Edge Gardening when the gin supplies run out.