Yes, that’s the extent of my outing today, a little trot down to Jusaka and back.

And a miserable day it is too. Just when we had started to think that maybe – maybe – spring had finally come, one of those reversals, so common in our benighted British climate, occurred to punish us for our complacency.

The temperature has hiccupped down to 10° C (50° F) with a “feels like” value of 8° or 9°, because of the cloudy, damp conditions.

Tigger went out to do the weekly shopping while I occupied myself at home, thinking that today would be a stay-at-home day for me. That changed when I received a text from Tigger to say that she had made it as far as Jusaka but could go no further because the number of hands required to carry the coffee, together with the rest of the shopping, exceeded the number of hands actually available.

I therefore hurried along to Jusaka to increase hand availability from two to four. As it turned out, that was sufficient and even allowed a surplus of 25%. This was fortunate as there was a bit of a breeze blowing and the 25% came in useful for holding onto my hat!

Following my post An experiment, I have been busy editing old posts and republishing them on SilverTiger. One subscriber to that blog reported being inundated with notifications of new posts. I’m sorry about that but, if I am to carry out the plan, I need to catch the blog up to present times by posting past articles. There is no way round that. If subscribers find the influx of posts is too much to deal with, then unsubscribing temporarily may be the best solution.

If you feel like taking a look at my old blog as it emerges from suspended animation, use the link in the preceding paragraph. And if you feel like leaving a comment, even better!

Today is the warmest yet: 23° C (73° F) and there were a lot of people in the streets making the most of it, including couples and family groups on bicycles, whether their own or the red hire cycles.

Family photo in front of Wild King

We saw this family group, the mother photographing the children posing at the feet of Wild Kong.

I can’t imagine how difficult it must be to persuade very young children to conform to the distancing rules and lockdown when they may not appreciate the need for this.

St Mark’s Church and jogger

Quite a few people were choosing to use their exercise time jogging, some trotting in a fairly leisurely way and others putting in a turn if speed. Rather them than me!

VE Day display on the church steps

As it did for Easter, the Church has a display on the steps for the 75th anniversary of VE Day. It is a rather miscellaneous collection, suggesting that suitable materials were hard to come by.

Lions

The centre-piece was formed by these two lions, obviously children’s soft toys and somewhat ill-matched with regard to size. I don’t know why they are attached to one another by string. They are endearing, in a way.

From here we progressed, as is our custom, to Myddelton’s deli. We waited outside while customers in the shop were being served. Then we collected our coffee and made our way home, playing dodge’em with other walkers and joggers.

When I closed the old blog, SilverTiger, I posted a closure notice and, as far as I knew then, that was that. Since then, however, I have kept an eye on the blog and the number of visits that it receives. I expected numbers to gradually decrease but that has not happened. The blog continues to receive a fair number of visits each day.

I wondered whether I should just ignore this or perhaps close the blog definitively, that is, delete it. On the other hand, I am rather fond of it and if people find it useful (I have had a number of requests for permission to use photos since closure), it seems reasonable to leave it open.

A dead blog is rather a sad thing but I cannot commit myself to running two separate blogs. The idea I have come up with is to repeat certain posts from this blog and publish them on SilverTiger. This is an experiment and I cannot say at this stage whether it is a practical proposition. We shall see!

To visit my old blog, click here: SilverTiger or if you have a mobile, you can use this QR code:

You are welcome to leave comments here or on SilverTiger or to send me a message using the contact form or email address given under Contact me at the top of the sidebar.

In our examination of the names of the days in English and French (and incidentally, in Babylonian and Latin), we have reached the middle of the week (Mittwoch in German) with Wednesday.

While most people pronounce Wednesday as two syllables – “wenzday” – a few, perhaps considered “old school” by the majority, pronounce it with three: “wed’nsday”, which, as we shall see, is slightly nearer the original from which it derives. With 9 letters, it is also the longest of the English day names.

Here is a reminder of these names in the 5 languages we are considering:

The significance of Nabû to the Babylonians is succinctly described in its Encyclopædia Britannica entry as follows:

Nabu, biblical Nebo, major god in the Assyro-Babylonian pantheon. He was patron of the art of writing and a god of vegetation. Nabu’s symbols were the clay tablet and the stylus, the instruments held to be proper to him who inscribed the fates assigned to men by the gods.

The Germanic tribes, among whom were the invaders of Britain who would become known to history as the Anglo-Saxons, named this day after the god Woden.

Woden was also known as Odin, a god with many and somewhat confusing characteristics. He seems to have shared with Tiw the quality of being a warlike god whose protection could be sought in battle. In Norse mythology, Odin presided over Valhalla where he was joined by warriors fallen in battle. His favourite weapon was the spear, with which he was often depicted, and he had only one eye, having given the other in exchange for wisdom. For more details, see the Wikipedia article on Odin.

In the Anglo-Saxon language, the genitive (possessive case) of Woden is Wodnes, giving Wodnesdæg for the name of his day and, ultimately, our modern Wednesday.

The Romans dedicated this day of the week to Mercury or Mercurius in Latin. This god’s Greek equivalent was Hermes, the two of them having many traits in common. Mercury was the god of commerce and communication and as such was the messenger of the gods and the patron of merchants and messengers. He was also known to be a trickster and was the patron of thieves. For more details, see the Wikipedia article Mercury (mythology).

The genitive of Mercurius is Mercurii and so his day was called by the Romans Dies Mercurii or Mercurii dies. As Vulgar Latin evolved into modern Romance languages and their dialects, Mercurii was often mutated into Mercuris by analogy with Martis (genitive of Mars) and Veneris (genitive of Venus). Sometimes the name alone became the day name and thus Mercuris became the Spanish miércoles. The French kept to Mercuris dies which eventually mutated into the modern mercredi.

As tomorrow is the repositioned May Bank Holiday (moved to coincide with the 75th anniversary of VE Day), Tigger thought we should celebrate with a takeaway meal for supper. To check on which restaurants were operating, we walked through Chapel Market.

Chapel Market

As it was sunny today and warmer even than yesterday (21° C, 70° F), there were quite a few people about though not as many as there would be in “normal” times.

I notice that these days more people wear face masks than before although mask wearers are still a minority. The government is still vacillating over whether to make masks obligatory or at least to advise their use. If they do make masks obligatory, then I will wear one but until then not because the World Health Organization whom I trust over the likes Blundering Boris is still not advising their general use in the community.

I note also the increasing use of homemade and bought “fashion” masks which are probably ineffectual and may actually increase the risk of infection to the user.

Not all is gloom, however, and I was cheered to see that some members of the community are enjoying the quieter conditions resulting from lockdown.

Pigeon taking his ease

This is just one of several pigeons I saw taking their ease right on the carriageway. Busy taking a photo, I accidentally disturbed one but instead of flying off in a panic as they usually do, it simply fluttered a few feet further on and settled down again.

I don’t know how they are managing for food, however, especially here in Chapel Market. When the market was functioning, there were rich pickings for the pigeons but the market has been closed now for weeks, along with most of the shops. The bins and the gutters are therefore empty.

High Street, Islington

We walked down to the main road and thence to Jusaka for our coffee. The picture was much the same as everywhere: pedestrians and vehicles circulating but much fewer than in “normal” times.

We passed the cheapie hairdresser’s where we have our hair cut. It was closed, of course, so we may finally have to come to terms with that hair trimmer that Tigger bought by mail order!