The Latin words at the bottom of the image (above) read, "Let us rejoice, for spring is here." The roadside exclamation in the Lanark Highlands tickled my fancy greatly when I encountered it a few days ago, and I made a note to find out who the puckish (and ecstatic) Latin scholar is.There are infinite possibilities to be explored here. Perhaps the scholar and I can meet for tea now and again and trade murky Latin puns. Perhaps she or he possesses a Latin edition of Winnie the Pooh (Winnie Ille Pu) or The House at Pooh Corner (Winnie Ille Pu Semper Ludet) and we can read aloud to one another.
How wonderful to have the Latin edtion of Winnie ille Pu! I love the illustration on the cover. It always irritates me when people say 'what's the point of teaching Latin, it'a dead language'. I did 5 years of it at school, it was never my favourite subject and I was never that good at it found it quite hard work. Nevertheless I passed the GCE exam with a reasonable grade and it has probably been of more use to me during my life than anything else I learnt at school. All plant names are in Latin, you can often work out the meaning of words using it and it's the basis of all the Romance languages - so not exactly pointless! Glad to see it is still alive and well in the Lanark Highlands, wonder how many people can translate it?:)
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