Estonian National Flower

Blue Cornflower Sketch

Blue cornflowers--where to begin?  This will be the logo for now.

lillekenaLisa--can I call it that?

In the Estonian language the word "lill" means "flower" in English.  The word "kene" means "little". But "kena" is "little" is its genetive (possesive case).  However, this is not to be confused with the word "kena", which has several meanings including: nice, lovely, kind, pretty, handsome, trim, and so on.  With that explanation, I will conclude that "lillekene" means "little flower", and the word "lillekena" is a word I think I made up. In the Estonian language the word "lisa" means extra, additional, addendum, or supplement. Additionally ;), "lisama" means to add, to tag on, to supplement. No doubt this is very fascinating to me seeing as "Lisa" is my American given name, but as a side note, Liis, Liisa, Liisi, Liiso and Liisu are all familiar female first names in Estonia.

One of my first weeks in the country, while walking by kaubamaja keskus on a rainy day in downtown Tallinn, surrounded by signs that said, "LISA! ALAHINDLUS!", I thought, "I love this! My name is everywhere!" I learned what "lisa" meant in Estonian--the mall was advertising "EXTRA low prices." (They were having a huge sale.)

LISA!

In addition to the weekly emails, Mom & Dad wrote real letters and sent them in the real mail EVERY week!  I thought my love for real mail reached its peak in about the fifth grade when I had 8 pen pals at the same time, from all over the United States, but the letters received in, and sent from, Estonia only led me to ever appreciate the charm enveloped in the eesti posti (Estonian Postal Service), and caused my fascination, and love, for "real mail" to grow.

After seeing those sale signs at the mall, I fancied to write a letter-head on the weekly real mail I sent the family, in response to their letters from home.  Next to a pretty, little flower doodle at the top of the page, near the date, I would write: "lillekena lisa: The Little Flower's 'Extra!'"  As their favorite (and only) daughter, it was implied that I was "The Little Flower" and the 'Extra!' was naturally "privileged news," and news indeed, for the reader, and as such, implied a need for newsies in the late 1800s to shout, "Extra! Extra! Read all about it!" regardless of the silly or serious nature of my 8-to-12-day-delayed "breaking news."  Well, that was over 7 years ago.

An Estonian would never make sense out of what to him or her would translate into, "flower nice extra".  But the question I have been wondering since is this: Can "lillekena lisa" mean what I [the American trying to learn to speak Estonian] wanted it to mean then, and can I use the phrase to become what I would like it to become now, without worrying about if it actually makes sense in Estonian?  Let the wondering drift away like big clouds in a massive summer Estonian blue sky...

And let lillekenaLisa begin!  I need to call it something, so I think I will name it "lillekenaLisa".   We might do some catching up here and there, but something big is happening.  Stay tuned to "Read all about it!"