It’s the first day of the month. So did you say rabbits this morning? Good fortune is sure to attend you if you did. And if you believe that, you’ll believe anything. Mind you, I half-remember someone saying that it only works if there is an ‘r’ in the month. [Citation required, as they say on Wikepedia.] As usual, I put Emma’s bunny on the bedside table last night to remind me - just in case my first words were “Bloody hell. Is that the time?” And here on the right is that said bunny-rabbit grazing where I should be grazing. I seem to recall that I was doing precisely that shortly after this photograph was taken, earlier in the year. Incidentally, the first day of July is also Swiss National Day. It was made an official national holiday as recently as 1994, and is celebrated each year with paper-lantern parades, fireworks and bonfires, and hanging up strips of Swiss flags (which are conveniently easy to draw - unlike the Welsh flag). Those Swiss certainly know how to enjoy themselves (he added, ironically).

I remember (as if it were yesterday) reading how the farmers living along the Hudson River in North America were so dependent upon the river that they spoke of “disembarking” from their horses and “mooring” them outside the local store. It is one of the few facts I can remember from my in-depth study of the socio-economic geography of North America, confirming that our recall of information largely depends upon how it is presented. What prompted this observation, you may ask. Well, daughter Eva bought me a copy of a couple of Monty Python DVDs for Fathers’ Day (and will no doubt be borrowing them for her own entertainment shortly - we share the same sense of humour). One of the DVDs includes the “Galaxy Song” - here downloaded from YouTube. This novelty song is one of my favourites. If only all facts could be packaged like this, we could all be studying for a masters in our chosen field - not necessarily astronomy.