Forty-two

"Forty-two is a pronic number and an abundant number; its prime factorization  2 · 3 · 7 makes it the second sphenic number and also the second of the form { 2 · 3 · r }. As with all sphenic numbers of this form, the aliquot sum is  by 12. 42 is also the second sphenic number to be bracketed by twin primes; 30 is also a pronic number and also rests between two primes. 42 has a 14 member aliquot sequence  42, 54, 66, 78, 90, 144, 259, 45, 33, 15, 9, 4, 3, 1, 0 and is itself part of the aliquot sequence commencing with the first sphenic number 30. Further, 42 is the 10th member of the 3-aliquot tree. "   - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/42_%28number%29

And bats love aliquot trees!

The aliquot tree.

Matthew told me about the baobabs in Senegal.  Some of them are more than a thousand years old, and have ancient names and have been used in ritual and celebrations for generations.  He said that the people believe the trees to be immortal and have a custom wherein they lay new babies in the baobab's embrace in order for them to be assured of a long life.  

Giant old baobab

  The bark is capable of rapid regeneration after striping, even after the trunk has been completely ring barked. The bast fibres are still widely used for making strong and durable cordage. Indeed, in Bengal it has given rise to the saying “As secure as an elephant bound with a baobab rope”. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries the sun-dried bast fibre and wood was imported to Europe for the manufacture of a strong wrapping paper. Fortunately this practice is no longer - See more at: http://www.baobabfruitco.com/TheBaobabTree.html#sthash.VdsyN7Yc.dpuf

Baobabs are quite miraculous.  The people who live near them use every part of them.  Their hollows are good places to store things.  Their fruit is used for nutrition and the bark is used in medicine.  They do seem to have some extraordinary powers, compared to other trees.  For instance, a baobab can regenerate its bark even if it has been completed ring-barked.  

I love the fact that it is extremely difficult to chop down a baobab.  The wood is sort of spongy, and so if you strike it with an axe, as one would a normal tree, the axe is likely to become stuck and difficult to extract.  This characteristic of the baobab is like a natural deterrent that the tree has to stupid humans.   

These trees are often the only real vegetation for miles around, so of course the people living nearby are grateful for the shade and often congregate at a particular tree.  The more isolated trees have entire ecosystems living inside and on top of them.  Wild animals will use the holes as lairs, birds nest in the branches, and insects burrow in the nooks and crannies of the bark.  (I keep wanting to use the world "skin" instead of bark.)

Last night I had such a vivid dream about Evvie, our old domestic worker in South Africa, who came to work for us when Jess was four, and then was the boys' nanny when I went back to work.  Evelyn was a unique soul, bossy and loving, independent and proud.  She came to me in my dream to tell me that Matthew was sick.  When I woke up I thought that she knew about him because she was on the same continent and that she had somehow managed to communicate with me by entering my dream (yes, I have some odd ideas sometimes) and so we texted Matt but he replied that he is fine, fully recovered from his bout of illness.

And 42 is the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything, in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams' wondrous five-book 'trilogy'. (Ah Douglas Adams, you died too young!)  A super-computer has spent millions of years working out this answer but apparently no one can remember the question.  So a huge computer the size of a small planet was composed of organic materials to find out what the question was, and it was called "Earth".  

The amazing Douglas Adams

Tim turned 42 the year we came to America, which is quite old to emigrate.  We were brave pioneers, leaping into the unknown!  The scary, possibility-of-disaster-filled future in another country where we knew one other family!  It is madness when you think of it, analyse it, but luckily we didn't, then.   

And now it is 11.42 and I must go to bed!

  The bark is capable of rapid regeneration after striping, even after the trunk has been completely ring barked. The bast fibres are still widely used for making strong and durable cordage. Indeed, in Bengal it has given rise to the saying “As secure as an elephant bound with a baobab rope”. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries the sun-dried bast fibre and wood was imported to Europe for the manufacture of a strong wrapping paper. Fortunately this practice is no longer - See more at: http://www.baobabfruitco.com/TheBaobabTree.html#sthash.VdsyN7Yc.dpuf

  The bark is capable of rapid regeneration after striping, even after the trunk has been completely ring barked. The bast fibres are still widely used for making strong and durable cordage. Indeed, in Bengal it has given rise to the saying “As secure as an elephant bound with a baobab rope”. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries the sun-dried bast fibre and wood was imported to Europe for the manufacture of a strong wrapping paper. Fortunately this practice is no longer - See more at: http://www.baobabfruitco.com/TheBaobabTree.html#sthash.VdsyN7Yc.dpuf