Spring Forward

This was the weekend I've been waiting for since the end of October - the weekend when British Summer Time finally arrived.  Nothing gives me greater pleasure than to move all the clocks and watches in the house forward by one hour and to know that it will stay light now until almost 8.00 pm.  In a couple of months there will still be streaks of light in the sky at 10.30 pm and by the middle of June until 11.30 pm, if it's a very clear night.  I just love this time of year with a whole spring and summer to look forward to, not only the lighter evenings, but being able to eat our evening meal in the garden (weather permitting of course!), a new growing season to enjoy, and a whole new season of car boot sales to look forward to.  Utter bliss!!  The first evening of BST was celebrated this year with a delicious cheese fondue (the fondue burner behaving itself impeccably this time), and some very spectacular thunder and lightning just as it was getting dark.

I called in to the 'Coffee and Jumble' at the local church again this morning and picked up a few vintage children's records.  To be honest, it was the artwork on the sleeves that sold them to me (although at 10p each they were also a great bargain.)

It's the little black kitten howling her head off that I really like in this picture, although the unbelievably non-PC mother cat about to give her errant offspring a good old wallop for losing his mittens is quite amusing too.  Can you imagine having a child's record with this image on the front these days - 'Health and Safety' would have a fit!

And this artwork with the three blind mice looking like extras from 'Reservoir Dogs' was just too good to leave behind.

Even better, the records themselves are on bright red vinyl.  I remember as a child having a record that helped me to learn my alphabet which was on rainbow coloured vinyl.  Which seems a very modern idea for records that were made in the 1960's.  Years later, as a teenager, it was quite the thing to have 'pop' singles which were printed on coloured vinyl, or even picture discs or, best of all, the 12 inch version of something on coloured vinyl.  Whoever originally owend these records was obviously a very careful child as all the sleeves have survived intact too.  Something which none of my very old records still have.

P often talks about a story-telling record he had as a child which was all about Dominic Dachs und die Katzen Piraten (Dominic Badger and the Cat Pirates).  I think that was LP sized and P says he used to listen to it over and over as all the characters had different voices and there were all the sound effects to enjoy too.  It must have been a bit like an 'Afternoon Play' on the radio, but for children - which sounds a lovely idea.

I'm off to visit my family in Bristol for a few days so posting on here will be a bit sporadic.  The weather forecast looks quite promising with some spring-like weather in the next few days.  It's made knowing what to pack a bit difficult, but it'll be nice to see everyone again, and to be able to make use of Mum's broadband connection (we're STILL on ye olde dial-up here!  19 days and counting!!)

Comments

[Meghan]

I love how the mice have sunglasses on!