63 Comments
Oct 10, 2023Liked by Candace Rose Rardon

Your posts always feel like a cadeau when they hit my inbox!

Did you know that although ‘cadeau’ is the only officially correct spelling of the Dutch word for gift, informally the alternative spelling ‘kado’ can also be used? And since we love diminutives, we’ll often use ‘cadeautje’ or ‘kadootje’ when we talk about a (small) gift.

Expand full comment

Such a sweet story. The cherry and plum paintings make my heart sing!

Expand full comment

Such a lovely post, Candace! I loved the pictures and the idea of how certain words stay with us. I’m always drawn to sadhana (from Sanskrit) and cha (Mandarin) or chai

Expand full comment
Oct 10, 2023Liked by Candace Rose Rardon

Ah, Candace... such a beautiful story and a true cadeau for us. Love the watercolors and always, the Elena bits. 💚

Expand full comment

The Danish word for gift is “gave” and the Danish word “gift” means “married.” So.... yay, mnemonics 😀 I’m fascinated by Dutch, though ... it has a melodic quality to it, very few stops and flows like a river ...

Expand full comment

This is so beautiful Candace 🥹🥹

Expand full comment

This was a joyful read, thank you! 💗

Expand full comment
Oct 12, 2023Liked by Candace Rose Rardon

@Candance Rose is so talented. The painting, the words and the thinking behind them. Love them all.

Expand full comment

You inspire me!

Expand full comment

Candace, once again you put my mind in a happy memory place.

We have bits and pieces in our family vocabulary from the places we lived over the years. You eat tangerines; we enjoy naartjies. You are annoyed by mosquitoes; we slap at udzuzus. Elena loves her grandmothers; my kids love their oomas. You have luggage; we have katundu. You have medicine; we have muti. And when the back window of your car gets dusty, it says “wash me;” when mine gets dusty, it says “омой меня.”

And when my kids gossip or argue, they do it in Russian or Turkish or Russish.

I love it.

Expand full comment

I'm happy that you are inspired to share your process with us. Yes, I've been surprised and pleased with the attention to detail that the "font folks" who program these scripts into the word files have applied to their letters. It's amazing and fun. But to merge those fonts onto a painted image is something I've always struggled to do, so I'm more impressed now with how you do t hat.

Expand full comment

I loved this. Beautiful storytelling. And I was thrilled to hear about your adventures in Anatolia on the Evliya Çelebi way. He was a remarkable person. All this brought back memories of happy years in Anatolia. Thank you!

Expand full comment
Oct 11, 2023Liked by Candace Rose Rardon

I lived in Holland for 6 years. Cadeau is a loan word from French, but the Dutch put their own spin on it, making a diminutive from it and using it as an adverb. Looking forward to hearing more from Antwerp.

Expand full comment

Just delightful 😊

Expand full comment
Oct 10, 2023Liked by Candace Rose Rardon

This was so lovely! Thank you for continually making my day :)

Expand full comment

I felt transported by theses words.

Expand full comment