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:
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“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!
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