Hello there. I’m trying to make it predictable
that I am here every day. Something to rely
on in these times which can well, surprise.
I find I like things I can depend on – this
cup of tea, this biscuit and if you look at
the world events listed for today, March 2,
on Wikipedia there is absolutely no event
in the whole of history which appears to have
been done by women on this day. Nothing at
all. It’s as though we took the day off.
I don’t know if it was a surprise day off
or people had been planning it. March 2 - women
decided – I think I’ll crack on with something
else.
It’s been a time of surprises. My 88 yr
old mother is now on YouTube and FaceTime
and it turns out I am perfectly capable of
changing the bed linen, I just had never thought
of doing it by myself before. Some of my best
surprises so far have come from the kitchen
cupboards in which I discovered the following
– a Christmas pudding, I love Christmas
pudding. How on earth did this get overlooked?
A very small bottle of Rum from Nelson’s
Victory and a Scandinavian chocolate bar which
goes by the marvellous name of Plopp. We also
have three bottles of a drink called Kefir
which I’m not sure about. It’s a fermented
beverage which is meant to be very good for
you. It was delivered to us because we have
the same address as someone else in London
but with a completely different postcode.
My wife phoned the intended recipient who
was charming and said we could keep it.
The drink came with a leaflet which told me
to be careful as the drink is under immense
pressure. I read that and thought well, aren’t
we all but actually the kefir totally wins
on the pressure stakes. Nearly blew out the
kitchen window. So I’ve tried it. What’s
it like? How can I put this? There’s quite
a strong hint of the goat about it. Actually,
the underside of a goat. I’m not at all
sure what it’s doing to my insides – another
surprise perhaps. I expect we’re all paying
attention to every physical twinge at the
moment and I realise that usually I pay scant
regard to my digestive system. Yesterday I
ate quite a lot of beetroot, totally forgot
about it and this morning I thought I needed
a colonoscopy.
I expect there have been a lot of surprises
in history. It was today in 1513 when the
Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León first
caught sight of what is now Florida. I have
no idea if he was expecting it or he was standing
on deck one day when someone said ‘What
the hell is that? And why are there are so
many retired people?” Actually the whole
discovery of America seems to have been a
shocker. Columbus found it in 1492 which is
nice but he was trying to get to India.
It was also today in 1872 that the American
painter and academic Samuel Morse invented
the Morse code. I imagine that wasn’t a
surprise. I’m going to guess that was someone
in his house saying ‘Will you stop that
incessant tapping? It’s not doing anyone
any good.”
I’ve time to clear out one of the kitchen
drawers and found this – it’s an insect
magnifyer. I expect I bought it to keep the
grandchildren occupied in the garden but now
I’ve taken to it myself. I have become Maria
Sibylla Merian in carnate. If you don’t
know about her then chances are high that
you are not David Attenborough who considers
her to have been among the most significant
contributors to the field of entomology or
insect study.
As a sidebar - If you like words then it may
please you to discover the etymology of entomology.
Etymology – study of words. Entomology - study
of insects. Confuse those two and you may
not have the aptitude for academia that you
thought you had.
Anyway, Entomology from the Greek éntomon,
for insect, and logia, for study.
Maria Merian was born today in 1647 in Frankfurt,
Germany. Naturally no one thought to educate
a mere girl but her stepfather was a painter
and as there was paint in the house, she took
to doing drawings. Maria is a lesson to all
of us that you can never predict how your
kids are going to turn out as she also took
to insects. As an adolescent she began collecting
them which beats any occupation of the modern
teens I know. One thing led to another and
before you knew it Maria was raising silk
worms.
By the time she was in her thirties she had
published not one but two books on catepillars
providing her own detailed drawings on their
life cycles. She documented evidence on the
process of metamorphosis which is so impressive.
It took me till my fifties to be able to spell
the word. We owe much of what we know about
insects to Maria and yet I expect few folk
outside the Attenborough clan have heard of
her.
Maria made a living by teaching drawing to
posh girls. This meant she had access to the
gardens of the wealthy. There is nothing bugs
like more than a well stocked flower or vegetable
bed and she was able to carry on collecting
and documenting insects. This was the amateur
science of naturalism which was popular in
her day but only for men.
She moved on to learning Latin so she could
read scientific books and the less attractive
hobby of collecting frogs in order to dissect
them. Her status as a scientist grew and in
1699, she got permission to travel to Suriname
in South America, along with one of her daughters.
To finance it she sold 255 of her own paintings
so that she might spend two years studying
the insects of Suriname. She was mocked by
the Europeans who had gone there simply to
grow sugar and she in turn was appalled by
their treatment of slaves and said so. She
concluded her ife in the Netherlands where
she opened a shop selling specimens she had
collected and engravings of the plant and
animal life she had seen.
From her work the wonder of metamorphosis
became clear. Her work detailing the study
of entire species of insects, their life-cycle
and habitat, set a new standard for the entomology.
Hard to believe but until she published her
studies many people believed that insects
were spontaneously generated. Metamorphosis
is astonishing. Take the simple Ladybird.
They undergo an epic metamorphoses starting
as tiny yellow eggs which hatch into black
worm-like larvae then a blob-like yellow pupa
and finally, the imaculate llittle black and
red insect that we see in the garden.
It reminded me of a poem by Enid Blyton I
used to know -
Ladybird, you're very neat
From tiny head to little feet,
I like your coat of red and black,
I like your clean and shining back.
Do you polish it each night
To make it shine so gay and bright,
Or do you keep a tiny fay
Who rubs it up for you each day?
There’s a poem which shows how the world
has changed. I’m not sure the combination
of things being bright and gay and keeping
a tiny fay to rub you has the same ring to
it that it did in the 1950’s. Anyway, I’m
going in the garden to look for bugs. Before
I do I can’t decide whether to have the
Plopp chocolate bar or the rum. I’ll think
I’ll take Ogden Nash’s advice -
“Candy
Is dandy
But liquor
Is quicker.”
Take care. Be kind.
