2019 - Day 227/138 - Thursday...Blench...

I am back from Chicago. It was a really good meeting, and worth the time. I got back in to Austin about 1:30 this afternoon, and headed straight to the office. I got a few things accomplished during my 'power real estate' time, and then took off for home. I had four stops to make before I could really begin my commute, and I am glad that I got all those chores accomplished. There are at least two girls laying now. There were no eggs collected while I was gone, and I picked up three this afternoon, one of them being from one of the new Ameraucanas. They lay green eggs, so I know there are at least two girls laying. The eggs are still small, but they should start getting bigger, and I know some of the breeds we have out there lay bigger eggs.

Blench -- Verb. to draw back or turn aside from lack of courage. flinch. "Alternatively, opt for an all-inclusive hotel so that you won't spend your holiday blenching at the cost of meals." Harriet O'Brien, The Independent (UK), November 5, 2011

Did You Know? If a stranger approaches you in a dark alley, do you flinch or turn white? Actually, you could do both, and both would be considered blenching because there are two separate verbs spelled blench in English. The blench that means "flinch" derives from blencan, an Old English word meaning "to deceive." The blench meaning "turn white" is an alteration of blanch, from the French adjective blanc ("white"). Clues to which meaning is intended can often be found in context. The 'flinch" use, for example, is strictly intransitive and often followed by from or at ("blenched from the sight of blood"; "didn't blench at the sound of thunder"). The "whiten" use, meanwhile, can be intransitive ("his skin blenched with terror") or transitive ("the cold blenched her lips").