For a long time I just thought Yeshi was colourblind. Lots of men are, they say. He had, in particular, a real blue/green thing. He’d describe the sky as blue, but also the grass. And it was the same with clothes. I don’t wear green very often, but when I do it’s blue to him.
I might have had an inkling. Years ago I studied Chinese. The character 青 is widely used in Chinese to describe both green and blue – I didn’t think much of that at the time. Now I discover that many languages do not have separate words for blue and green – there’s a whole Wikipedia page about it. English has a term, “grue”, that covers this spectrum.
In Tibetan, ngom-po is the word traditionally given to describe the colour of both the sky and the grass. Tibetan does have a word for green, gyang-gu, but this is used to describe the sprout of wheat or barley specifically. In other cases, ngom-po is the go-to, and context is everything. So Tibetans might say “blue like the sky” or “blue like the leaves” to make the distinction.
We took the kids to Blenheim Palace at the weekend, where the autumn colours are particularly resplendent, especially under the clear October sky. Yeshi loves this time of year, and now, finally, we can have a sensible conversation about what we are looking at.
Or can we? Are we looking at the same things? Are we sharing an experience? Language certainly helps us to organise the sensations that colour produces, but maybe it also transforms our experience of them.
On which profound note, here are our opening hours for the week:
Wednesday: 5-9.30pm (dinner only)
Thursday – Saturday: 12-3 (lunch) / 5-9.30pm (dinner)
This week’s menu is out now – check the website for full details. Come by for dine in, take away or freezer food. A reminder that we are now also offering delivery on Friday and Saturday nights if you live within two miles of the restaurant. Call us on the number below to arrange yours.
Looking forward to seeing you soon!
Julie and Yeshi
Opening hours this week:
Weds: 5-9.30pm
Thurs – Sat: 12-3pm 🥢 5-9.30pm
☏ 01865 499318
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