Welcome to the snowy season

Ever since my first morning's commute from the new place, I've been wondering what it would be like in the snow. This morning's was scanty (about an inch when I left), but on the other hand it didn't seem like a single walk had been shoveled along the entire route. Also, rain changing to snow equals ice, so I had to step lightly. Still, it wasn't bad; I probably only added a minute or two onto my time. (The shuttle was late, so it ended up not mattering anyway.)

My biggest--and most pleasant--surprise has been how bright the place was when I woke up. Another thing I've been waiting all fall for is the leaves to drop so I could see how much light we might get during the bleak midwinter. Already the difference was considerable, then you add in some reflective fields of white stuff and you almost don't need artificial illumination at all even on a cloudy day.

The most unexpected consequence of the snow was seeing so many neighbours outside de-icing their cars. I'm not sure if there have always been this many going in at the same time I am that I just don't notice when they're not standing outside, conspicuous in dark colours against the white, or if a lot of them were caught off guard by the snowfall and delayed.

Yesterday, I felt a twinge about booting the still-blooming mum from its place in the sunroom to make room for the Christmas sapling. Today its vivid rusts and golds look distinctly out of place framed against a snow scene.

WotD: Fireplace Vocabulary VI

Irish

• an teallach "hearth, fireplace"
• an tinteán "fireplace, hearth"
• áit na tine "fireplace"
• an simléar "chimney"
• an múchán "chimney, flue"
• an maolaire "damper"
• an t-iarta "hob"
• cochall an iarta "firehood"
• an clabhar "mantletree, mantlepiece"
• an matal "mantlepiece"
• an scáthlán tine "fire screen"
• an cúlaon "deep shelf at the side of the chimney piece"
• an chosaint tine "fireguard"
• an leac tine "hearthstone"
• an gráta tine "fire grate"
• an crann teallaigh "fire-dog, andiron"
• iarnaí an tinteáin "fire irons"
• an priocaire "poker"
• na boilg "bellows"
• an tlú "tongs"
• an connadh "firewood"
• an lomán "log"
• an brosna "kindling"
• an súiche "soot"

आज का शब्द / آج كا شبد / ਅੱਜ ਦਾ ਸ਼ਬਦ

सिलसिला \ سلسله \ ਸਿਲਸਿਲਾ silsila "chain; connexion; series; descent"
चेतावनी \ ਚੇਤਾਵਨੀ chetaavanee "warning, notice, alarm"
ज़िंदगी \ زندگي \ ਜ਼ਿੰਦਗੀ zindagee "living, lifetime"

I'm awfully tired, so today's post will be expanded tomorrow. In the meantime, can anyone tell me what the three words I've picked have in common?

ETA: Only one taker? These are three words that, according to an article which appeared in The Hindu were misspelled in the manifesto of the hitherto unknown "Mujahideen Hyderabad Deccan", which has claimed responsibility for the deadly attacks in Mumbai, and are held up as evidence that the document was originally composed in Urdu rather than Hindi.

I'm not going to speak to the plausibility to that, I'm just going to observe what a lovely triad we have here. Silsila was familiar to me because it shows up so often on Arabic-language publications. The basic meaning is "chain", but in a publishing context it means "series". Zindagee is also familiar, being a straightforward Persian nominalisation of the word زنده "alive".

The only term that was new to me is चेतावनी chetaavanee, which you'll notice has no equivalent in Urdu. That's because it's a recent coinage (from the Sanskrit participle cetavya "making known") probably intended to oust long-standing borrowings like عبرت and فہمايش. Only one of my Panjabi dictionaries has it, indicating it is a recent arrival there as well (though one fully accepted in Indian Panjabi to judge by the Ghits).