Continue reading “widdershins around the reservoir”
bisy; backson
Like Christopher Robin, I have been “BISY” and there haven’t been as many updates to the blog recently as I’d have liked.
I found this feather while walking to the village the other day. I assume it’s a woodpecker feather, though I suppose it could belong to a hoopoe – we certainly see the abubilla more often than the pájaro carpintero, which I hear sometimes but catch sight of only on very rare occasions.
The feather markings made me think of the Spotted or Herbaceous Backson, although, of course, the Backson isn’t the only mythical beast that is spotted.
Continue reading “bisy; backson”
more damned lies
The BBC website reports that the Office for National Statistics has released figures describing the average man and woman in Britain today.
The bit that really bothers me is this:
The average British man is 38, will live another 41 years and is educated at least to A-levels.
The figures […] show the average British woman is two years older and will live to 72.
noble winners
After yesterday’s “race day“, it seems only fair to spend a few moments thinking about winners. Specifically about Nobel prize winners. And, more specifically, about mathematicians who have won Nobel prizes. (Note that there is no Nobel prize for mathematics.)
Sundays newspaper (El Público) ran a story on Echegaray, who they rightly said sounds more like a street name than anything else. He was a mathematician, but he won the Nobel prize for literature.
race day
Today is doce de octubre: la fiesta nacional de España, celebrated in Spain as el día de la hispanidad – ‘Hispanity’ day – although it used to be called el día de la raza – the day of the race.
Although I’m not in Madrid to see the parade, I did catch part of the desfile militar on the TV this morning. There were certainly plenty of horses in attendance, but none of them seemed to be making much effort to win the race.
And, sadly, there were no glorious Ascot-style hats. Indeed, as can be seen from this photo from El País, none of the royal ladies wore hats of any sort. A poor sort of race day, if you ask me.
don't confuse the narrator 