My mom, Jules (her hands pictured here) was busy harvesting cosmos seeds up until her departure. She's gone home now, but the seeds are drying on my kitchen table–and they make me smile each time I walk past them.
baba cool (baba-kool) noun, masculine/feminine
: hippy, flower child
The plural of baba cool is "babas cool".
Il est baba- cool, respecte son gourou, et rejette la violence.
He's a flower child, respects his guru, and rejects violence.
–from "Dictionary of French Slang and Colloquial Expressions"
Audio file: listen to Jean-Marc pronounce the French word baba cool and read the example sentence (above): Download baba_cool.wav
My mom will be waking up any time now, having traveled 24 hours en voiture,* en avion* and à pied* to arrive home in Mexico.
Having kissed her goodbye at 3:30 a.m., Thursday morning (Jean-Marc took her to the airport in Marseilles for her 6 a.m. flight), I spent the twilight hours moping around the kitchen… until I received a surprise several hours later! In Amsterdam, during her first flight connection, Mom had sweet-talked a "darling" traveler with a laptop into letting her leave a message* for me on my blog.
Thankful for the unexpected sign that she sent me, I thought about the surprise that mom was hoping for. Mom had one wish (on arriving home): that the one she loves would be waiting for her, flowers in hand. I listened to Jules's wish, which she repeated over and over on the days leading up to her departure, and hoped that she might be happily surprised.
So as to get her husband off the hook (just in case he forgot to show up at the arrival gate, fleurs en main*), and, as a way to welcome Jules home–and to put a great smile on her face–I thought we might all take off our reader hats today… and put on our baba cool* headbands.
Here's how I thought we might compose that flower arrangement–and it won't even cost us a penny!:
1. Choose one French* flower to put into the virtual basket (we'll use the comments box for our fancy flower "vase").
2. Include the city that you are "sending" it from.
If you do not know the French name for your flower, no problem, just write the flower name in the comments box, along with the city you are "sending" it from, and allow me or another reader to translate it for you.
*by "French"… I mean the French equivalent of the flower. For example: un coquelicot (or poppy) for Jules from Maine… or "un oeillet jaune (a yellow carnation) from Beijing"….
Note: the flower does not have to be native to the area that you live in: you can send an entire Hawaiian orchid leis (virtual, bien sûr!) from Tempe, Arizona, if you like!
Have fun and be creative (invent your own flower, if you so fancy), and thank you for your help (or should I simply say "Peace and Love" to you?!).
Signed,
Ze Flower Chick en France.
en voiture = by car; en avion = by airplane; à pied = on foot; message (see Mom's message): http://coucou.notlong.com ; fleurs en main = flowers in hand; baba cool = hippy, flower child
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Un protea de l’Afrique du Sud
from Vivienne in Illinois
Bonjour à la Belle Jules avec beaucoup de marguerites jaunes de St. Louis, MO!
A fuchsia from our garden in San Francisco. The variety: Wood violet.
En retard bien sur, c’est moi! Mais mieux vaut tard que jamais: Eh bien Jules, un beau bouquet de dahlias muliticolores de Virginie (Dahlia in French or in English!)
Une Citrouille fleur dans homage de Halloween. Avec Baton Rouge, Louisiana
I am sending you my favorite colorful and intricate Lantana from Minneapolis, MN. If only it grew year-round here . . . Happy Homecoming, Jules!
Sending you a bunch of beautiful peonies from Auckland, Nouvelle Zelande from Rae
Though not the first of May, a Brin de Muguet (lily of the valley) from Sidney, OH
Please enjoy a cascade of lovely Cecile Brunner roses from Portland, Oregon. (The City of Roses.)
De Brisbane: toute une avenue de jacarandas en fleurs … <http://visualarts.qld.gov.au/designyourowntour/details.php?id=242&pnum=20&project=Collection%20highlights>, un gros bouquet de lilas (lilac) mauves, des boules-de-neige, et des bleuets (corn flowers.
péonage a flower from Oregon
Des pivoines roses de Arlington, Virginia.
A belated prairie crocus from Winnipeg for you, Jules!
zennias were my mom’s favorite( could not find a translation for zinnia.. une bouquet de fleurs from Portland, Oregon.
Jules, je vous envoie un bouquet de California poppies.
I’m a little late, but better late than never! Jules, I give you a heaping handful of my mother’s favorite flower, lilacs – or “lilas” in French. They grow aplenty in my hometown near Chicago, IL but they are sent from beautiful Lyon, France!
Tulips from Grand Rapids, Michigan
A vase filled with liatris from Paul in Lehi, Utah. Enjoy! 🙂
enormous tulips– just about to come up *everywhere* here on the Oregon coast– in orange/red, red, yellow, pink, and white!
from Beaverton, Oregon
Bienvenue, Jules!
For a lovely woman, who raised a witty, fun and lovely daughter that we all get to enjoy through her writings and photos:
A Delphinium belladonna stem from Lake Oswego, Oregon to add to the bouquet.
Un bouquet de tournesols de Manhattan, KS.
A field of bluebonnets from Texas
A bunch of golden Arizona poppies blooming wild in the desert
I am sending you a bouquet of daisies and baby’s breath. Enjoy!
[Belated] greetings from Columbus, Ohio! Oops. Is there a French idiom for “better late than never”? Mils pardons, I meant to send a welcome home fleur for your mom a week ago, but I had trouble deciding whether Jules, with her obvious joie de vivre, seems more like a grandiflora rose ‘Heart o’ Gold’ bloom (hot pink petals with a yellow center), or like my favorite, flamboyant canna ‘Bengal Tiger’, with its orange flowers and big striped leaves.
And then I thought she might also enjoy the $1.00 supermarket “christmas” fern that my stepdaughter’s five-year-old and I are lavishing with pipe-cleaner ornaments – stars, snowflakes, candy canes, a prismatically incorrect rainbow, gingerbread men, a Pegasus, treble clefs, kites, crescent moons, holly wreaths, corkscrews, bells and so on. In Jules’ honor, we’re now adding some fleurs-de-lis in neon colors. Now, that’s truly baba cool, n’est-ce pas? If I weren’t so lacking in technical savoir-faire, I’d upload a picture – it’s getting quite elaborate, and we still have two more months to work on it.
Please forgive all the errors, I know I should check my French, but if I take the time, I’ll never get this sent before our techie guy comes to swap out my hard drive. Honest, I’ll do my homework before I send any more comments. – Linda
Un bouquet de pensées de mon jardin pour Jules, de Joan à Sydney Australia.
The last nasturiums before frost brom Milwaukee.
Une ‘bluebonnet’ de Texas. C’est la fleur ‘nationale’ de Texas!
Pot…Ca me rappelle comment on imite le chant des pigeons : ” paye tu un pot…tonton” (repeat).
Le proverbe humoristique du jour ( je suis certain s’applique pas a votre situation personnelle):
Le mariage est comme un mirage dans le désert:Palais, cocotiers, chameaux…
Mais soudain tout disparaît et il ne reste que le chameau