Word To Use Today: flight.

I spent yesterday scraping up perished rubber left behind after taking up the ancient underlay on a flight of stairs.

It was more fun than it sounds, partly because flight is such a lovely word. Next time you are labouring to climb some stairs remember that you're doing the human equivalent of flying.

A group of birds also sometimes comes in a flight - it might be a flight of swifts, perhaps, wheeling and screaming:


photo by Keta

so do groups of aircraft and arrows (come in flights, I mean: they don't usually scream). A raceful of hurdles is a flight, and so is an aviary's flying space. A cricketer, when he bowls the ball in such a way to make it turn bafflingly in its course, gives it some flight.

All mysterious and very nearly magical things - and, now I come to think about it, all literally uplifting.

Have a good day!

Word To Use Today: flight. This word comes from the Old English flyght - which shows that it's been practically perfect for over a thousand years.