I am also pleased that gossamery is really a word. I wasn't sure if I could use it.
"a gossamer veil gauzy, gossamery, fine, diaphanous, delicate, filmy, floaty, chiffony, cobwebby, wispy, thin, light, insubstantial, flimsy; translucent, transparent, see-through, sheer"
It's such a cool word! and who can forget one of my favourite obscure cartoon characters, Gossamer!
And get this:
DERIVATIVES gossamery adjective ORIGIN Middle English : apparently from goose + summer 1 , perhaps from the time of year around St. Martin's summer, i.e., early November, when geese were eaten (gossamer being common then).
Who knew that? Anyone? Anyone?
Josephine's hair, which is growing in length but is still so fine in texture, does not feel like hair. It is soft and flyaway and can barely be controlled - and well, in the mornings, it doesn't even look like hair. It looks like she's been bred from a pair of fuzzy pencil toppers.
I try to tame it into ponytails and braids and have handfuls of barettes in every style. When it's wet, her braids are so thin and pointy they could put an eye out if she turns too fast.
And yet, it dries so quickly strands escape if I so much as exhale in her general direction.
It's always in her eyes, and I find myself doing that parent thing - brushing it away and tucking it aside with my fingers. My sometimes freshly licked fingers. It doesn't help.
Hats work, when she wears them. And we all know how toddlers love to wear hats.
Kerchiefs work. In the front.
And the colour? It is sunshine itself. In fact, there are times when I have to play with pictures in photoshop because it looks more like a halo than a hairstyle.
And so, I am always searching for what will tame the wild and beautiful locks of my golden-haired girl, mostly so she is able to run and play safely. While the habit of either lazily or unconsciously brushing one's locks out of one's eyes is fetching and charming at times, it's also a hindrance and an affectation that at this point, can impede her, even momentarily, in playing. And I want her to be completely free and unselfconscious and unfettered for as long as possible.
So while grocery shopping last night, I saw these headbands, and thought, well, she's past the stage where it looks like she'd be wearing one of those infant brain tourniquet thingies.
Heck. I mean, Prada's doing it, right?
So I bought some. And she loved them. I was picturing a wee Alice in Wonderland.
But she loved all of them. At once. So what do I get instead of the tidy looking little moppet I'd imagined?
Mark Knopfler.
