Life begins at forty

 

Life begins at forty

If a baby is carried to full term, it has been 40 weeks in development, so in that sense, life (outside the womb) really does begin at 40.

Forty can be significant for people taking examinations, when it may be the pass mark, and denote the difference between success and failure.

It may be even more important to the workforce, when a 40-hour week can be standard, though it may vary between 37.5 and 40 hours. Shift workers usually work a 40-hour shift.

 In tennis, 40 indicates the third point won in a game. Athletes and dancers reaching the age of 40 used to be regarded as veterans, ready to retire. In modern times players at the top of their game are seen as elite performers.

Minus 40 degrees is the point at which Fahrenheit and Celsius scales are exactly equal.

In religion, 40 frequently represents a time of tribulation or preparation. Noah’s flood lasted 40 days. Moses fasted for 40 days, as did Jesus, while the Israelites wandered the desert for 40 years. Many Christians fast or abstain from luxuries for the 40 days of Lent.

In Islam, 40 symbolises spiritual growth. The prophet Muhammad experienced his first revelation when he was 40, the age of full maturity and strength. The baby in the womb develops in 40-day stages before its soul is breathed into it.

In the 14^th century, during the Bubonic Plague, ships were held in port for 40 days before any crew members or passengers could disembark. This was to ensure that the danger of passing on the disease had been overcome. The 40-day period, still observed today in cases of communicable disease, is called quarantine, deriving from quaranta, the Italian for 40. Emerging from quarantine is like a return to life, another starting from 40.

The Roaring Forties are westerly winds blowing strongly and persistently in the Southern Hemisphere, causing huge swells, because there are no landmasses to interrupt them. Merchantmen used them in the 18^th and 19^th centuries to speed their journeys through latitudes 40˚ and 50˚ between Europe and Australasia. On their return journeys, they used the Furious Fifties!

 

Patty pans

 

Patty pans

 It had been many years – at least ten - since I had seen patty pans for sale, so I was delighted to be able to buy some recently.

Patty pans (Cucurbita pepo) look rather like flying saucers. The name derives from the vegetable’s resemblance to a shallow baking pan used for cooking patties or pasties. It is an ancient crop, archaeological discoveries indicating that it was cultivated around 8 to 10,000 years ago in North America.

They are known by a variety of other names, including custard squash, and granny squash.

I cooked them in the air fryer with no dressing or seasoning and they were soft and delicious with our main fish dish.

 

How much is too much?

 

How much is too much?

 Water makes up around 60% of our body weight. We need it to keep our bodies working efficiently. When we are well-hydrated, our blood circulates as it should, our body temperature remains at the right level, and our food is digested properly. We become dehydrated when we lose more water than we take in. Then we become tired, our heads ache, and small tasks seem impossible.

Thus we are advised constantly to make sure we’re drinking enough to remain healthy.

Of course, requirements vary according to body weight and activity, but official guidelines suggest that women should drink about 2.7 litres a day, and men around 3.7 litres. That includes all sources of fluid, including plain water, tea, and fruit. Some people worry that tea is a diuretic, and causes more liquid to be lost than gained, but studies have shown that the loss is minimal, and tea is an acceptable way to maintain fluid intake.

When high temperatures are forecast the constant advice is to drink plenty of water and stay well-hydrated.

Is it possible to drink too much water?

Human kidneys can process about one litre of fluid an hour. Healthy adults should drink enough fluids to make their urine a pale straw-yellow.

It is dangerous to drink more than the kidneys can cope with. Too much liquid dilutes the blood’s sodium levels. Water then enters the body’s cells, including those in the brain, causing them to swell. This is called water intoxication (hyponatremia) and can be fatal.

Mild symptoms of hyponatremia include completely colourless urine, needing to urinate more frequently – that is, more than nine or ten times daily, or several times at night – stomach upsets like vomiting, or diarrhoea, and a persistent throbbing headache.

Serious symptoms indicating a medical emergency include disorientation, muscle weakness, cramps, seizures, or coma.

If people are expending a lot of energy in intense exercise, or are living in hot, dry climates and sweating constantly, 4 litres might be an appropriate amount of liquid.

Athletes in endurance events are the people most at risk of over-hydrating.

Rather than worrying about the volume of fluid you are consuming, the best method of ensuring good hydration is to be aware of your body, and drink when you feel thirsty.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

         

Sleep tight

 

Sleep tight

Night night, sleep tight,

Don’t let the bed bugs bite.

What does ‘sleep tight’ mean?

There is a plausible, but possibly mistaken explanation for this. Rope beds were invented in the 16^th century. Before the 19^th century mattresses were stuffed with straw or feathers or horsehair and suspended on and supported by a web of ropes. (The very poorest people slept on a filled sack mattress on the floor!)

With time, the ropes would sag and need to be tightened with a wrench. This led to people thinking that ‘sleep tight’ referred to the tightening of ropes to provide a sounder night’s sleep.

However, rope beds gradually fell out of use after sprung mattresses were produced in the mid-19^th century. The phrase ‘sleep tight’ was not seen in print until 1866 and became common usage in the early 20^th century. By that time, rope beds were a thing of the past.

To ‘’sleep tight’ or ‘sit tight’ means to remain still or secure. Bidding someone to sleep tight was a way of wishing them a good, restful night’s slumber.

‘Don’t let the bed bugs bite’ was added to the phrase later, although it is certain that mattresses were repositories of many types of tiny pests. Mattresses had to be shaken and beaten regularly to dislodge bugs. Usually, if the stuffing was of straw or hay or pea husks, it would be replaced entirely at harvest time.

There is an alternative suggestion which is that ‘bed bug’ was the name for the tightening wrench for a rope bed, and it would sometimes jump back and hit or’ bite’ the hand that was holding it.

Bed bugs are not entirely the affliction of poverty-stricken people. Like cockroaches, they are ancient insects and have adjusted to living with humans. It is thought that they originally lived in caves in the Middle East, where they fed on bats. Eventually they adapted their feeding to humans who inhabited the caves. They are attracted to body heat and the carbon dioxide humans exhale.

They cannot fly or jump but can crawl quickly onto clothing or other personal items. Thus, when travelling to places where bed bugs might be encountered, it is advisable to keep luggage off the floor and away from mattresses and walls. Bed bugs creep into small crevices and seams.

 Furthermore, unpack immediately on returning home and wash and dry everything at as high a temperature as possible. An infestation of bed bugs is difficult to eradicate.

Ramping up

 

Ramping up

 Solar Orbiter's widest high-res view of the Sun, March 2025

Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons

The heat is ramping up again in the UK, though it’s not going to be as extreme as it was in June. At least, that’s the forecast. It could all change . . .

It will be hotter in Europe.

Drink plenty of water and keep as cool as possible.

Green for Go!

 

Green for Go!

Green is an energising colour. It’s all around us in the trees and the plants.

A green traffic light tells us it’s safe to proceed. People even say they’ve ‘given something the green light,’ meaning that they accept the proposition, whatever it may be.

The green light on our vacuum cleaner operates at floor level and tells us something different. It highlights every particle of dust. Operating the vacuum cleaner is quite mesmeric, as it shows a never-ending quantity of small detritus to be sucked up from our hard floors.

We have animals so there is fur and dust in abundance.

It is not the gadget for an obsessive homeowner, because however many times the machine is passed across the floor, there is always more to be picked up.

Vacuuming in our house is a Sisyphean task.

 

 

My Boy Lollipop

 

My boy Lollipop

This song popped into my head the other morning for no apparent reason. Perhaps it was the unusually high temperature.

It was a bouncy, cheerful song, sung by 16-year-old Millie Small who was credited with popularising Caribbean ska. Ska was the precursor to rocksteady which led on to reggae.

My boy Lollipop

You make my heart go giddyup

You are as sweet as candy

You’re my sugar dandy

 

Whoa oh, my boy Lollipop

Never ever leave me

Because it would grieve me

My heart told me so

The remaining verses continue in similar breathy, excitable fashion.

Millie Small had a stroke and died in London in May 2020. She was 72.

Noise!

 

Noise!

We are having a lot of work done on the ageing roof of our house. Today it has involved the erection of scaffolding, which is a very noisy process.

The scaffolders have been drilling, sawing, screwing, and dropping scaffolding for several hours now. The dogs have given up barking. I wish I could say my head had given up aching.

 Later, maybe . . .

Tomorrow, a huge skip is being delivered to collect all the rubbish which will come from the removal of damp felt, membranes, timbers, and birds’ empty nests. The tiles will be reused, so that’s something to celebrate.

At least we shall have a leak-proof roof by the time all the workmen have gone, by the end of the week. It is not what we were planning but sometimes these events are thrust upon us.

Happy Days are here again!

False impressions

 

False impressions

For the avoidance of doubt, I have to research much of the information I write in my blog posts. There are a few things I know, like how to tell the difference between male and female starlings, or the colour of an octopus’s blood, or what is meant by a fronted adverbial (one of the dafter things ten and eleven-year-olds need to know, apparently)  but even those I check to make sure I’ve got my facts right.

Sometimes what we know to be right evolves to become incorrect or inaccurate as new evidence is discovered. That makes history interesting, and science ever more fascinating.

I’m learning all the time, as so many of us are. New knowledge is retained sketchily, the most outlandish or gruesome facts sticking more readily than the commonplace.

I find real experts fascinating to listen to. They are enthusiastic, articulate, and able to explain complex ideas in a readily comprehensible way. They also enable their listeners to feel, albeit fleetingly, almost as intelligent as them. Leaving an audience feeling good about themselves is a gift and is likely to encourage at least some of them to pursue a passing interest in more detail.

 

FOLFIFOAP

 

FOLFIFOAP

Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons

Do you suffer from folfifoap? Have you ever caused someone to experience the folfifoap, either deliberately (I hope not!) or unwittingly?

It is not a pleasant sensation and can show itself in many ways. For some, it results in stuttering and stammering. (Stuttering and stammering mean the same thing, but stuttering is the term more likely to be heard in Australia, Canada, and the US. Stammering is mostly used in UK, Ireland, and Singapore.)

In other people, folfifoap causes blushing, while yet others are reduced to speechlessness. This is uncomfortable, particularly in an interview situation, where the onus is on presenting oneself in the best light possible.

Most professionals do their best to put those who may be feeling insecure or nervous at their ease, but in some cases, this leads to further embarrassment or discomfort.

Is there a cure? I doubt it. The only way to overcome Fear Of Looking Foolish In Front Of A Professional  (FOLFIFOAP) is to equip oneself with as much knowledge as possible about a particular subject, event, or dilemma, and build up one’s self-confidence.

Forty winks

 

Forty winks

When the sun beats down relentlessly, the senses become befuddled and concentration is increasingly difficult. Perhaps that is the time to stop battling the urge to close your eyes, allow the lids to droop and have forty winks.

This common English idiom was first recorded in 1821 by William Kitchiner (1778-1827) who advocated a short sleep in daytime for good mental and physical health. William Kitchiner was known as ‘a celebrity chef.’

Why is it ‘forty’ winks rather than twenty-one or seventy-five, or any other random number? The number forty has often been used to indicate a vague but substantial period, or an extensive set of things or events in folklore. In the Bible, Moses spends forty days on the mountain, the rains fall for forty days and forty nights in the Great Flood, Christ endured forty days in the wilderness. In The Arabian Nights, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves tells the story of an honest poor man who uncovers a thieves’ treasure den. From that story comes the phrase, ‘open sesame.’

A ‘wink’ is a fleeting closing of the eyes. It may be deliberate; a wink can be a hidden message between two people, or an indication of a joke, or a flirtation, but in the context of ‘forty winks’ it means not a constant blinking but a ‘resting of the eyes’ as some like to express it. In other words, it is a brief, restorative sleep.

Some people consciously choose to have forty winks. I worked with someone who daily had forty winks in the lunch break. I may be wrong (frequently am!) but it seems to me that men are more inclined than women to take forty winks.

26th June

 

26^th June

What is special about June 26^th?

In a non-leap year, it is the 177^th day of the year. There are 188 days remaining until the end of 2026.

The next leap year is 2028, and in that year, 26^th June will be the 178^th day of the year.

 It is a ‘national’ day for other causes, among them National Cream Tea Day and National Take Your Dog to Work Day.

It is also a national day for Beauticians, Canoes, Refrigeration, Chocolate Pudding, and Barcodes among many others. A thing which may seem mundane or even boring to one person is a source of interest and satisfaction to another.

Secret Garden

 

Secret Garden

Bank vole (Myodes glareolus)

Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons

The bank vole is Britain's smallest vole, measuring 8-12 cm, with a tail 6 cm long. It lives from 6 to 18 months in grassland, farmland, woodland, moors, or gardens.

I am probably late to watching the series but have just seen the first of five episodes of ‘Secret Garden,’ introduced by David Attenborough. Superb camera work brought to life the lives of insects, tiny mammals, like bank voles, jewel-like kingfishers, a grass snake swimming, and otters, among many other wonders.

The setting was a river surrounding a mill house in Oxfordshire, whose garden is flooded regularly. As is common with wildlife documentaries, there were moments of tension - an otter stalked nine ducklings unable yet to fly, and their mother acted as a decoy to save her brood.

Red kites soared above. They are scavengers but will take an easy meal of small prey if it presents itself. Aggressive damselflies feasted on mayflies.

The skill and patience of the camera men (and they usually seem to be men!) was matched by their hardiness. I don’t know how many people would willingly sit in a hide in a river for five days to capture an elusive otter on film.

If you have already seen this programme, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. If you haven’t, please watch it if you can.