Good evening!

Good evening!

I was out to the post box yesterday, around 4 o’clock in the afternoon, just a short walk, when coming from the opposite direction was a young lad having just been disgorged from his school bus, aged possibly around seven, not the bus, him, who as he approached said very cheerfully, “Good evening!” I responded accordingly, but it made me think. My first thought was to consider how delightfully polite he was, either a credit to his parents or to his school or both, but then I wondered about his type of greeting.

To me it was afternoon, yet to him it was evening, or was that a greeting that he put out automatically at that time of day without considering the actual part of the day that he inhabited?

The time when the greeting ‘good morning’ is supplanted by ‘good afternoon’ is fairly clear if one decides that passing from am to pm is the deciding factor, in other words going through the mid-day time phase, or through twelve noon, and this could therefore be when the greeting should change.

That may be the official way of deciding, but to ordinary people they might consider the change time to be as they have their lunch, if they have such. This approach makes it easier to change the greeting because they don’t have to look at a watch or clock or the stars; they just need to consider their feeding habits, which is simpler.

But what about the change from ‘good afternoon’ to ‘good evening’? A general local survey amongst the natives proved quite inconclusive. The options put forward included the possibility that it could be related to lighting-up time which would vary as the year progressed, and would be extremely difficult to decide in the country with no lights, or to a fixed time such as 5 o’clock, or to when darkness fell which would alter through the year, or for children when they leave school to return home. I think the turn of the tide is a red herring, and that perhaps one of the other options should be the correct one, but I wonder which it should be.

Local mushrooms

I picked some mushrooms in the garden because I thought how good they would look on toast, with the size up to about 4in (10cm) in diameter, and they smelt just as mushrooms should. My juices flowed with the thought. Yum, yum! With enthusiasm I showed my wife.

Her instant response was " No way - how do you know they aren't poisonous?"

"Because they look good!"

"No! I'm not touching them! You can have them yourself if you like, but don't count me in on it!"

So I researched them on the Internet, but without definitive results. I next photographed them and sent copies to relatives and friends who know about such things. Their responses were similarly not encouraging, down to the comment "There are thousands of fungi, and I can't be sure of this one! Don't eat them!"

"Surely you can tell from a couple of photos?"

"You need to show the fungus to an expert in the field. There are too many poisonous ones about! I wouldn't eat them!"

Having kept them in a bowl during this investigation period, I now disposed of them, and upon them leaving the glass bowl the deposit they left behind was quite fascinating, but otherwise of no real value.

What had started out as being a possibly delicious light locally and wildly grown snack finished off in the dustbin. There really was no point in poisoning myself with nobody else willing to take the risk - no way!

Snow-man

A snowman was constructed in a local village depicting him sitting on a bench waiting for a bus - looked very good and everything about him seemed real - all in snow - but just waiting! He was in the middle of the village square, in full view of all who passed by, and was much admired by all.

Then along came four teenagers. They fancied being mischievous - not in a destructive sense - just mishievous - and this was the result!

Now the passers-by were more than just interested - they were amused and were thoroughly enjoying the view and it provided a great deal of animated discussion and most of them now photographed the image for their archives. They were treating the image in a very relaxed attitude, which was good, but would such a response make the perpetrators more adventurous in the future and go too far? I suspect they would have been told off for doing it, but also quietly much admired.