It has been a scorcher today in the extensive gardens here at Dolores Delargo Towers. As the BBC confirms, we couldn't have asked for better weather to be in lockdown:
The UK has experienced its sunniest spring since records began in 1929, the Met Office has said.
It is also set to be the driest May on record for some parts of UK, including the driest in England for 124 years.
Of course, this gives me the perfect excuse [as I do every time we have anything resembling hot weather here in the UK] to hark back
forty-four years ago to that idyllic long, hot summer of '76...
The heatwave hadn't even started yet in May 1976 - we had another month to go before the UK began to bake. The fashions veered towards gypsy skirts and maxi-dresses for women, corduroys and high-buttoned flared denims for men (before all that was cast off for the rest of the summer in favour of swimming costumes, of course). In the headlines were "Gentleman" Jim Callaghan, our new Prime Minister, already facing falling Labour Party ratings; his predecessor Harold Wilson's controversial Resignation Honours list ("the Lavender List") was published, with a number of dodgy businessmen given peerages; we were celebrating the inaugural flight of Concorde to New York; former "millionaire's playground" the Lebanon was in flames in a bloody civil war; all eyes were on British tennis champion Sue Barker; and "Elsie Tanner" (Pat Phoenix) returned to
Coronation Street after three years.
And in our charts this week? Abba's
Fernando was at #1, and JJ Barrie, The Wurzels, Andrea True Connection, Sutherland Brothers & Quiver, Wings, Rolling Stones, Bellamy Brothers and Miss Ross were all present and correct...
...as was this little oddity:
Can you imagine anyone having a hit with a song written by Hoagy Carmichael today?