Butterflies. Times tables. Silliness. World Cup. Bayeux Tapestry

 It may not feel much like summer but according to experts it’s summer enough for us to expect lots of painted lady butterflies this year. Whoopee!

“The painted lady flies north from sub-Saharan Africa at the start of every year. Successive generations breed in north Africa and then the southern Mediterranean before reaching northern Europe later in the summer. In September, the offspring of these migrants fly south again.

In some summers, hardly any reach British shores, but Butterfly Conservation experts said a combination of favourable early spring conditions in southern Europe, the recent heatwave and benign southerly winds had turned 2026 into a once -in-a-decade “painted lady summer”.

Personally I’d be happy see a lot of butterflies of any kind. The presence of butterflies usually indicates that the day is going to be fine. At least that’s my experience. 

During our recent trip to Silves, Portugal, we saw some rather impressive butterflies. 

Today I hold out few hopes of seeing butterflies. In the small hours of the morning I woke up to the sound of torrential rain. Fortunately it had stopped by the time I went out but the River Tame is running rather full through our village.

Scanning the papers over the last few days, I discovered from the letters page that there has been some sort of debate about times tables. Why do times tables, the bane of our lives in 1950s primary schools when we were regularly tested on them, figure in  newspapers? No idea, anyway I came across this bit of correspondence in the Letters page:

 “Your correspondents suggest unnecessarily difficult ways to do the nine times table (Letters, 25 May). The answer always adds up to nine. The first digit is one less than the multiplier and the second is what is what you add to the first to get nine. So 7 x 9 = 63. Simples! 

Jeff Warren

London”

In answer to that someone whose name I failed to note, said:

“Jeff Warren (Letters, 31 May) says that in computing the nine times table, “the answer always adds up to nine”. Eleven nines are 99.”

Well, of course. The first method works if you only learn times tables up to 10 x, rather than 12 x which those of us who had 1950s primary education had to suffer. And we worked on a base of 12 because that was the imperial way: 12 inches to a foot and 12 pennies to a shilling. Of course we had to learn 12 x tables. I personally had no trouble with the 9s, it was the 7s that bugged me. 

Here’s a link to a silly story about people coming out of manholes , like Ninja Turtles, in New York. That’s another sign of summer - silly stories in the news. 

Here’s another one:

N

“Fifa has canceled World Cup tickets issued to about 60 fans who mistakenly got them for free because of a website error, and soccer’s governing body is now asking for them to be paid in full.

The tickets were “allocated at no charge [0 USD] due to a prior payment issue during the checkout process,” Fifa said in a statement Thursday.

“Fifa regrets the error and any inconvenience caused,” it said. “The tickets requested by these fans remain reserved, and the affected fans have been invited to complete payment of the correct amount.””

Imagine the moments of delight some football fans must have had, believing they had free tickets! 

The World Cup keeps popping up in the news for all the wrong reasons too: Somali referee Omar Artan has been denied entry to the USA, presumably because he might be a terrorist. 

And Talal Salah, an Iraqi sports photographer, was refused admission into the US, depriving the team of its official photographer prior to the competition. He is reported to have been held by U.S. immigration officials at Chicago O’Hare International Airport for around ten hours, during which time his electronic devices were checked before he was officially denied entrance. And then he was sent back to Baghdad! 

So it goes!

There have also been some letters about the Bayeux Tapestry again. Experts are questioning the longstanding belief that Good Old Harold dies with an arrow in his eye at the Battle of Hastings. This is what happens when you start examining old stitch-work really closely. I am more amused by those who grow indignant at the suggestion that the Norman invasion marked the birth of the English nation

Is the French minister of culture, Catherine Pégard, accurate in stating that the loan of the Bayeux tapestry would “allow the English people to contemplate on their own soil the act that was the birth of their nation”? If King Æthelstan could be contacted for comment, he may well demur.

Tim Wicks

Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire

 Catherine Pégard appears to think that the Norman conquest of 1066 was for “the English people … the birth of their nation”. This is utterly outrageous. Instead of the return of the Bayeux tapestry signalling a new era of mutual understanding between the French and the English, the old French prejudices are clearly alive and well. A little respect for our pre-1066 Anglo-Saxon culture, and the real origins of the English nation, would be welcome from our one-time invaders. Let’s hope that they learn a thing or two from the Sutton Hoo treasures.

Rev Dr John Caperon

Crowborough, East Sussex

So much for entente cordial! 

Life goes on l stay safe and well, everyone!

Early mornings. Strange not-summer weather. The mad mayhem of the modern world goes on.

It may well be officially summer but this is a very strange June weather-wise. This morning I was up extra early because Phil had to go and catch an early bus into Oldham, consequently I was out running just after eight o”clock, running in the windy sunshine. I debated putting on an insurance raincoat but decided that the sky looked clear enough to suggest that there were no showers imminent. I even stood and basked in the sunshine from the shelter of the front porch when I got back. 

Then Granddaughter Number One sent a message, in her inimitable fashion: ‘What IS this weather?” I messaged back our acceptable sunshine and wind, and she sent me a photo and  video of ‘sideways’ hailstones. 

She lives a only few miles away on the other side of the Grains Bar hill but that hill makes all the difference. Rain, hail, snow, thunder - she always experiences it before we do. And, lo and behold, a few minutes later the sun disappeared and we too had hailstones. By midday the sun was back! Odd weather!

I checked up on the Goose Family on the millpond when I was out and about. All doing well,  it seems, but I’m pretty sure there were originally more than two. Nature can be cruel!

Out in the wider world mayhem continues. I should be used to it by now but it still seems odd that people are warned in advance tonleave their homes before a bombardment takes place. I suppose it means the perpetrator can say that if someone is killed or injured it is largely their own fault; they shoule have moved away from the target zone. And it still seems odd to hear news reports about places that for so long were just names in Bible stories?

“Israel issues forced evacuation order for residents of Lebanese city of Tyre

The Israeli army’s Arabic-language spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, has issued the latest forced evacuation order for residents of Tyre, Lebanon’s fifth biggest city, ahead of attacks.

“Urgent warning to the residents of the city of Tyre, including the Christian quarter, and the camps and surrounding neighbourhoods,” he wrote, urging residents in the southern Lebanese city to “evacuate immediately” and “move north beyond the Zahrani river”.

And here’s a link to an article about a Palestinian doctor, arrested almost a year and half ago, and now moved into solitary confinement. His crime? Not evacuating patients from his hospital when it was about to be attacked again - continuing to try to save lives. 

Such is the modern reality. 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Monday morning moans!

 This morning I didn’t go for a run but I actually got up earlier than usual. We went out after breakfast looking for a dental technician’s place, supposedly situated on a small industrial complex round the corner from home. A noticeboard said it was in unit 13. Unit 13 did not exist. We were told it was in another section of the complex, a few hundred yards down the road. Off we went. No dental technician! Further enquiries sent us another few hundred yards down the road into yet another section. There it was. How do three apparently separate complexes all call themselves by the same name? Very confusing! 

One consequence was that I did get something of a run after all, scuttling along the road trying to keep up with Phil who was striding out at top speed! Not quite how I planned to start the week.

On more than on occasion I have moaned and groaned about security measures which come into force when I try to access messages on the NHS app on my phone. Jumping through technological hoops to read a message that, for example, the GPs’ surgery is closed on such and such a day for training is one of life’s bugbears. However, I am aware that we need security measures.

So here’s a headline from this morning’s paper:

“Starmer says government will legislate if tech companies don't stop children using phones to take naked images”

The item went on to say that Keir Starmer has announced that tech companies must stop children from sending or receiving naked images of themselves. An admirable aim! 

In his speech, he said:

“One issue is the ability for children with phones to send and receive nude images.

For too long, people have been told that is simply the price of modern tech, that nothing can be done, that government is powerless, that parents just have to accept it.

I reject that completely, because tech should adapt to the needs of society, not the other way around.

That is why today I am calling on tech companies operating in this country to introduce device controls that prevent children from sending and receiving sexually explicit images.”

Various groups, such as Big Brother Watch, the civil liberties and privacy campaign group, are expressing concern and outrage at the UK possible ending up with he ‘one of the most auhoritatian internet regimes in the world’. “Protecting children online is vital, but these are outrageous plans that will fail to address the underlying causes of online harm. This will only result in population-wide ID checks for all of us to use our phones, tablets and laptops.

Put simply, the Labour Government is threatening ID checks for the internet. No one in a democracy should need to show their passport just to get online.”

Which brings me back to my moaning and groaning. A solution to the mobile phone and children has to be found, of course, but there’s a bit of me fears that this genie can’t be put back in the bottle. Some of those whom such a measure is intended to protect are precisely the ones who know how to circumvent the security checks. It’s the likes of me, and so many of my generation who will continue to have difficulty recognising the traffic lights on the grid intended to prove I’m not a robot!

Still on technology, I read that actors have been complaining about mobile phones and other such devices in theatres. Rosamund Pike got more than a little cross with someone sending text messages during her performance. Other actors have paused performances to remonstrate with people texting, massaging, taking photos and filming. Journalists have written about visits to the cinema or theatre spoilt by others in the audience chatting and seemingly having a party in the seats behind them. It’s all part of the odd modern phenomenon that says it’s normal to eat and drink through a film. It’s rather different from the days when ice-creams were sold dung the interval by an usherette with a tray suspended from their shoulders! Even watching a film on TV at home, my grandchildren expect popcorn! 

Such is the modern world!

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Running in the rain … or not. Blossoms in their prime. Pics of the Paris of my youth. Mogging.

I ran in the rain this morning. Well, to be strictly truthful, I ran mostly in thin sunshine and only had a couple of occasions when I was rained on. A fairly typical June morning around here.

Out walking yesterday, we realised that by going off to Portugal for a couple of weeks we missed the full glory of the hawthorn trees and bushes in bloom. They were just getting into their prime as we left but now completely gone.the same applies to the wisteria, which grows in great profusion all over the exterior of a building close to the centre of the village. Here’s a photo from a few weeks ago.

Poppies are a different story. Like the buttercups they are everywhere. Here in Delph, as I have commented before we seem to have only yellow and orange ones but I spotted red ones in Greenfield, not too far away, yesterday.

That’s enough horticultural stuff.

In today’s paper there was an article about a collection of Photos of Paris in 1970:

“Paris frozen in time in May 1970 – in pictures

In March 1970, Paris announced an amateur photography competition C’était Paris en 1970 to create an archive of a city undergoing a proliferation of large-scale urban development projects. A grid system divided the city into 1,755 squares and a photographer was charged with documenting each square during May 1970. Some of the 91,655 photographs taken are on displaybat the Bibliothèque Historique de la Ville de Paris until 7 October 2026”

Most of the pictures really are frozen in time. Just look at the petrol pumps and the cars, not to mention the clothes.

But this one of children playing on a slide could have been taken yesterday, in my opinion anyway.

I came across a new word yesterday: “mogging”. Apparently it means to outdomor outshine someone. Ot is a word from the “manosphere” and began as a verb derived from the acronym for “alpha male of the group: “Amog”. In misogynistic forums in the 2010s, to “mog” came to mean to outdo someone in terms of sexual desirability and more recently has been adopted by “looksmaxxing” male influencers who encourage men to try to alter their looks – sometimes in extreme ways – to increase their “sexual market value”. (Really?)

What a strange world we live in where people of all genders are encouraged to alter their looks to such an extent. Of course, fashion and make-up and styling have all been part of manufacturing your “look” but nowadays more permanent changes are all the rage - not always for the best!

But now it seems that “mogging” means “besting” (another annoying word) others at basically anything. The gold medal Olympic figure skater Alysa Liu said in an interview last year that her main competition strategy was “to mog”, and it is possible to do “walk-mogging” when you overtake people on the street. 

I wonder what Mr Rees Mogg feels about his name being used in that fashion!

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Beautiful tree. Good people. Interfering US politicians. And not protecting the environment. .

 When I run round the village in the morning, I go past a horse chestnut tree of quite spectacular beauty. Back in January I decided to post a photo of the tree every month of this year, usually on the first day of the month. My June picture has been delayed because we were in Portugal when June crept in. I could have taken a picture yesterday but the smallest grandchildren were spending the morning with us and Grandson Number Two, six years old and bossily determined, didn’t want to go for a walk. Besides it was threatening rain and the small people amazingly did not have waterproofs with them. So here is today’s photo.

Today rain has been forecast again but I have managed to dry several loads of washing in the garden. One of the downsides of going on holiday is having to wash clothes that your took with you. 

 

Yesterday was the birthday of the Spanish poet Federico García Lorca. Born in 1898, he was killed in 1936, possibly on August 19th, but records of such executions during the Spanish Civil War were not really kept. Nobody knows what became of his body. But his poetry and his plays outlived the regime that killed him. I wonder what he would have to say about modern times. 

Here’s one of the many pictures that have been posted on social media in tribute to Marjan Satrapi.who died this week. 

We need to remember the good people of the world.

Meanwhile, it seems that US Vice President J.D. Vance has been tweeting about the death of young Henry Nowak. Apparently it’s a consequence of the mass immigration into the country which we have allowed, accepting people who are opposed to the western way of life. Despite Henry Nowak’s parents’ insisting that they do not want his death to be politicised, it is being used as a way for the US to poke its nose into how we run our country. Here’s a link to an article about our Mr Starmer’s reaction to that. 

Here’s something else I came across about the USA:

“The Trumo Administration plans to dismantle a $368m deep-sea observation system that has for more than a decade provided crucial data on ocean systems and climate change.

In a notice, the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced that it had “initiated descoping of the Ocean Observatories Initiative” (OOI), a vast ocean observation network comprising more than 900 instruments that collect data on ocean health, including current patterns, climate variability and marine biodiversity.

The notice, issued on 21 May, came just days after Trump fired all members of the independent board that oversees the NSF. It outlined plans to remove all in-water infrastructure from observation sites off the coasts of North Carolina, Oregon, Washington and Alaska, as well as from the Irminger Sea, a marginal sea between Greenland and Iceland.”

Of course, it may not be necessary to work at environmental stuff if Mr Trump and co manage to destroy the world through wars here and there. 

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!