Out walking yesterday I took a photo of a rather impressive plant which I did not recognise. I posted the picture on social media, asking horticultural expert friends to see if they could identify it. And they did so. Burdock (Arctium) was the answer.
Now, one of my favourite soft drinks has long been dandelion and burdock. Was this the same burdock? So I investigated further and found out a few things.
The prickly heads of the plant, called burrs, are especially good at getting caught in fur and feathers and clothing. If you look carefully, you see each spike ends in a little hook. Apparently birds have been know to get so entangled in them that they cannot escape - nature is cruel that way! A Swiss inventor chappie, George de Mestrol, out walking his dog back in 1948 noticed how the burrs hooked onto his clothing and took a closer look under the microscope. And so the hook and loop fastener we all know as Velcro was created.
Some languages reflect this in their words for Velcro. Serbo-Croatian uses the same word, čičak, for burdock and velcro. Turkish does the same with the name pitrak, while in the Polish language rzep means both "burr" and "velcro". The German word for burdock is Klette and velcro is Klettverschluss (= burdock fastener). In Norwegian burdock is borre and velcro borrelås, which translates to "burdock lock”.
And yes, dandelion and burdock was originally made using the burdock root. The drink has been around since the Middle Ages and way back then was probably a form of beer, made from fermented roots of the two plants. Nowadays there’s no alcohol in it and I doubt that it actually sees either of the plants in its production. So it goes!
I just read that last month Nicola Sturgeon spoke to Holyrood magazine about how the pandemic had changed her attitude to turning 50:
“I’m totally approaching my birthday in a different frame of mind where, without being sort of too sentimental and clichéd about it, I am probably like lots of people right now, just more likely to count my blessings and focus on the things around me that I should be grateful for, like, you know, my family, my husband and having good health. I undoubtedly feel different about turning 50 than I would have felt without the experience of the last three months. I would say that I now feel less bothered about turning 50 than I felt about turning 40”.
Someone needs to tell her that the bigger your “significant” birthday the less bothersome reaching that age seems to be. I remember thinking, as a new young teacher, that the forty-year-olds on the staff were ancient. Now forty seems impossibly young! Our son regretted turning twenty as he was no longer a teenager - I wonder if he remembers that now that he is 42! At least one friend actually cried when he reached the grand old age of 30 - he thought his youth was behind him. I was too busy being about to become a new mother at that age to even notice 30 come and go. 40 and 50 also came and went almost unnoticed as I was working on making progress in my teaching career. 60 was rather nice - lots of bunches of flowers, and drinks with work friends, all a bit poignant and rather exciting as I was about to retire at the end of the academic year. And 70 saw a good friend and me planning a trip to Cuba. Goodness knows what 80 will bring! Nicola Sturgeon has no need to worry about 50!
Among other people, the MP Angela Rayner commented on Matt Hancock yesterday:
“Matt Hancock is trying to claim Lockdown started on March 16th even though it was not imposed until March 23rd. The Tories are attempting to re-write history on their shocking response to #coronavirus and cover up their failures. Matt must correct this Now and stop this nonsense! People are fed up with this constant spinning and spiv like selling of the Tories actions, most people see through this rubbish...”
Checking in my diary, if lockdown started on March 16th, then my last visit to my hairdresser’s was after all such places had closed for the time being. Odd!
Today I read this:
“UK health secretary, Matt Hancock, is ordering an urgent review of the daily Covid-19 death statistics produced by Public Health England, after it emerged they may include recovered former sufferers who could have died of other causes.”
So he is suggesting that the number of deaths from the Coronavirus in the UK is smaller than has been calculated. Hmm!
Are these attempts to rewrite history? Repeat it officially often enough and people will believe it. I seem to recall a book where that happened!
Here’s a little update on the face mask wearing situation in other parts of Europe:
“The Costa del Sol, where around 2.3 million Britons holiday every year, recently made it compulsory to wear masks in public at all times, in line with the other tourist hotspots of Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera. Exceptions are made only for sunbathers on beaches and pools, when eating or drinking, while practising sport and while playing a wind instrument. However, in Catalonia tourists are still required to wear masks at the beach or by the pool.
Across the border in France, the rules are slightly less stringent. While it is compulsory to wear face masks on public transport, it is up to individual shop owners to ask their customers to wear face coverings. This, though, could be subject to change, with the French prime minister, Jean Castex, recently signalling that face mask use in enclosed public spaces was under consideration.
Meanwhile, in Italy, although holidaymakers will not receive a fine for non-compliance, it is mandatory to use masks in enclosed public spaces. Flout it at your peril, as mask-less people will be removed from public transport.”
And here there is still discussion about how to police/enforce the wearing of face masks. Hey, ho!
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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