In the three years I have spent mostly in Germany I have reached the dizzy level of a 2-year-old in my German language skills. But to be fair to toddlers I do have more screaming tantrums. What has been a surprise though is that I have started to lose track of the changes in English usage.
Perhaps you too can remember when taking your tent to the beaches or hills and having a dip in the sea or a loch was called camping and swimming. If so then you may recognise the following wild language changes.
Swimming is now Wild Swimming
e.g. On holiday we went wild swimming.
Meaning: We had a dip in a lake.
Camping is now Wild Camping
e.g. We went wild camping on holiday and lived on wild food.
Meaning: One night we couldn’t find any Yurts so we parked in a layby and put our tent up in a field of wolves and bears and insects and things and picked some blackberries.
And hot off the press today I have just seen that Cross Country Running is now Wild Running.
Wild running
Anyone for Wild Shopping?
Farmed salmon is now ‘Fresh Scottish organic salmon from the wild waters of the Northern Atlantic’.
So much of the food industry depends on the ignorance of consumers, sadly most cannot be bothered to find out the unpalatable truth about unsustainable fish farming, its use of chemicals and pesticides, its threats to health and wealth of the oceans and wild fish stocks and they will eat any 2nd rate muck if we describe it eloquently enough. And some will even visit a salmon farm on a Scenic wildlife trip!
Meanwhile back in Germany as the one o’clock bell on the Munster rings out across the Rhine and the shops shut for siesta, I pick up my old beach deckchair and head down to my shady tree beside the Rhine for some Wild Sleeping.
A view from the breakwater 