sparrows and loquats

[asakiyume]

It's cold today; the heater is chugging along, making my living space warm, and I feel so grateful. Outside, in the nearby city, the sparrows by the bus station are fluffed up like little feathered pokéballs. They're very tame; people feed them crumbs and things, either by accident or on purpose.

Around here people say "on accident," to go with "on purpose." How about the other way? By accident or by purpose.

Safe from the cold are these loquat trees I grew from seeds that 88greenthumb sent me. I've never eaten the fruit of the loquat--have any of you?





Their leaves are generously large and a rich green color, and apparently you can make a tea out of them, but I won't, because my trees are up against enough difficulties, growing in pots and kept indoors for half the year, without having their leaves plucked.

In China, and then by extension in Japan, the tree is called pipa (biwa in Japanese), like the instrument--maybe because the fruit look like it?

a pipa (source)

Comments

[pdlloyd.livejournal.com]

I say "by accident" and "on purpose." My knee jerk reaction is that the phrasing suggests that accidents simply happen, not having been deliberately caused, while deliberate intent is required to make something purposeful occur. But, I'm not at all certain, as I think about it, that this interpretation has anything at all to do with the pronouns involved, but is, instead, a result of mere long-term association.

I think I've tried a loquat, but I can't be sure. We often try interesting fruit, both fresh and canned, from international markets, and we don't always know the English name for what we try.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Your parsing of "by accident" and "on purpose" makes good sense to me.

And yes, you may have eaten loquats under another name!