Wednesday 17th March - Good News and Earworms

Good news, all being well our eldest son and family will be able to visit us. Not at Easter, as was the original holiday home booking, but a bit later in the year. Excitement has followed the revised booking with our grandsons already planning what they are going to build on the beach and riding on the pedal tractor we have stowed away in our shed, plus our eldest grandson has asked if he can have a crab – not as a pet, of course, but from one of Andy’s catches. Covid could once again put pay to their stay but this hasn’t stopped me making mental notes of all the things we can do which won’t involve mixing or meeting up with lots of other people. As for our youngest son and his partner, who we have room to accommodate, they are checking on the feasibility of getting time off work during that week. Until we get nearer to the date, we won’t know if overnight household stays will be allowed or whether groups of over six can meet either indoors or outside, factors which could thwart their visit.

A constant companion of mine is an earworm. The music can vary from hour to hour or it can be with me for days, but why? I thought all would be revealed when we listened to a radio programme on the subject yesterday evening, which Peter had recorded. By the end of the half hour programme, I was none the wiser. Sometimes a tune will ‘appear’ in my head out of nowhere, bearing no relation to what I have been doing, watching or listening to. Most of these tunes are enjoyable but being mainly the first few bars or the chorus, after a while they can tend to get a bit repetitive. The worse one, which no matter how I tried I was unable to replace with something different and went on for days and days, was the theme from the film, Barry Lynden. I live in almost dread of this one returning and to this end, will never be tempted to watch the film again. So far, today my earworm is ‘Windy’, a song recorded by the group The Association back in 1967. When I told Peter, he said we had heard it recently on the radio but my thoughts are, it has come to the forefront of my brain, becoming an earworm, because the weather has been so windy of late. I hope ‘Windy’ doesn’t outstay its welcome.

One thing recent winds have not stopped and that’s, wild and garden spring flowers blooming. There are some large clumps of purple violets growing on the edge of a footpath in the village and as today’s photo shows; despite suffering some snow damage to the foliage the flowers are prolific. To me they look bigger than previous years which may be down to the large volume of rain which has fallen over the winter months.