Weather. Flowers. The price of power jackets. AI. The importance of learning the langauge and culture of others.

It was a fine sunny morning for a run today, quite a contrast to yesterday’s damp gloom. It’s still not warm though.

Time was I counted on going barefoot-and-sandals from May to September but this year I am still reaching for warm socks. Mind you I have been misled before. I still remember setting out one May morning wearing sandals and a very light jacket only to find that by mid-afternoon it was snowing! Mind you, that was Leeds, which possible has a special Yorkshire climate! 

On the subject of jackets, a fashion item in yesterday’s Guardian commented on the fact that Victoria Starmer chose to wear a cream blazer when she accompanied her husband to the polling station on Thursday. “She follows in a long line of women who have mobilised the power blazer at high-stakes moments.” The jacket was described as looking like a £1,690 ivory Alexander McQueen crepe design. Wow! Do people really pay that sort of money for a jacket? More to the point, does the wife of a Labour prime minister look as though she has any link to the working people of the country if she pays prices like that for her clothes? 

Getting back to the weather and the fact that this is supposed to be spring, my garden has been invaded by poppies, looking rather fine among the bluebells and forget-me-nots. I expect buttercups will be next.

Our ubiquitous poppies are all yellow or orange.

My Spanish sister has protested in the past that poppies are supposed to be red. This is because the poppies that grew in the garden of our childhood - wild poppies like my yellow and orange ones - were always red. There is a house further up the road here that will soon have a fine display of cultivated poppies, deep red and looking as though they should produce opium. 

I’ve been seeing articles about language - language learning, AI, and minority languages disappearing. Here’s a link to an article about AI and language provision by Diego Marani, Italian novelist and former interpreter at the European Commission and the Council of the European Union. While AI programmes that translate and interpret have improved by leaps and bounds, they may cause us to lose contact with the culture of other countries that we need to trade with or have diplomatic relations with. Understanding other cultures is big part of diplomacy and helps in the peace-making process. We still need the human touch. Indeed, we still need to learn other nations’ languages. 

And here’s a link to an article about disappearing languages. It seems that at least 244 languages have disappeared since 1950. Once again it’s a cultural thing. When the last speaker of a minority language dies, a lot of racial memories and culture also die. Understanding how certain customs developed helps us make the world a better place. Now, I have been known to scoff at those who insist on schools in Galicia or Catalonia delivering at least some of their lessons in Gallego or Catalán but in fact they are perhaps on the right track. We need to keep all those influences from other or former cultures available to future generations. They are likely to be the ones who have to sort out the mess we’ve been making of the world.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!