Another good day, with more sunshine. C. and I got twice around the garden. I did a bit of knitting. I had a nice Zoom meeting with my sister; better than nothing. She says Biden broke his ankle between election and Inauguration, playing with his dog. I didn’t know that. It excuses the fall.

 

Yes, all the rugby yesterday came out right, Mary Lou – France beat Wales in a last-minute thriller, but so late that I was already in bed. That leaves only us v. France, which was postponed because of covid a couple of weeks ago. That’s always a fun match. It'll be played at the end of this week. If France absolutely smash us, they can win the tournament. I never care much about that.

Helen and her friend had a good time in Kirkmichael -- sunshine there, too. She has brought me back some daffodils. We're famous for our daffodils.

 

Comment, Friday: Janet, yes, I’d like to hear your neighbour talking about bread. I wrote and told you so at the time, but my message seems to have vanished into the ether as so often. Thank you.

 

I often think it extraordinary, all that our species had to learn, and evolve, to do, after we split from the apes. First talking, which requires a re-shaping of brain, mouth and tongue. (Chimpanzees, I gather, brought up with humans speaking sign language, can acquire quite substantial vocabularies and even combine words, but they can't talk.) Then, presumably, separate and colonise the earth. The Victorians, when they first got to grips with evolution, were surprised that we didn’t all speak what was basically the same language. But we don’t. Although many languages are related, others aren’t.

 

Then we have to invent cooking (including bread-making) and writing and agriculture. And as we begin to move into cities, we’d need at least basic plumbing. And after, literally, millions of years in which all this is being done, all of a sudden the conductor taps his music stand with his baton and civilisation starts, pretty well simultaneously, everywhere: “Sing, goddess, the wrath of Achilles…”/”In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…”/ and India and China and pyramids and Benin bronzes. All at once.