My favourite time of year

I just love April. My brother swears it's because my birthday is in April! He would say that.The only reason for having February as his favourite month is because that's his birthday month! But April is different. The days are getting longer, the sun is shining, the daffodils in my front garden are so cheerful! Everything looks so much more optimistic. It's so much easier with the dogs as well. I can leave the kitchen door open so they can go in and out to the garden when they choose. It's soooo irritating having to open it just as I am at the most complicated part of a recipe! But we have neighbours and they demand so loudly I can't make them wait!

And the golf is so much more enjoyable. Even if, like today, the luck is not running with me (we don't talk about the tee shot at the 6th heading well left which inexplicably ended up in the big right hand bunker - or the putts that teetered on the edge of the hole and refused to drop!) The sun on ones back, and the fact that the ball runs instead of sticking in the mud, makes it so much more than 'a good walk spoiled'! Today it was what is usually called 'millionaires golf', nobody in front of us holding us up, and nobody behind pushing us. Bliss! This is the 5th hole at my golf club Stratford Oaks. Over the winter the course owners have rather unkindly made the lake in front of the green much wider. The result today was one lost ball as it fell rather short of the other bank!

Talking of sunny weather, I went to a very sunny Oxford last week for the Oxford Literary Festival. I love LitFests, but for some reason this was my first visit to the Oxford one. Sam Moorhead and David Stuttard were talking about their new book The Romans Who Shaped Britain. It was a highly entertaining hour plus at Christ Church, with a hugely amusing set of PP illustrations. Especially a wonderful picture that looked as if Gordon Brown was stabbing Tony Blair in the back to illustrate the assassination of Carausius by his finance minister Allectus! The book itself, which of course I bought, mainly because I could get it signed, is extremely readable. And they are men after my own heart. To them history is made by unpredictable human beings making decisions based on their own self interest and their own characters. Julius Caesar and Claudius both invaded Britain for purely personal political reasons. They both needed a military victory to cement their reputations back in Rome and Britain just happened to be available.

Another new interest of mine lately is lady jazz singers. We went to see Claire Teal at the Rose Theatre in Tewkesbury and had a thoroughly enjoyable evening. As a result I discovered the redoubtable Anita O'Day. They both do a magnificent rendition of Tea for Two at enormous speed! She has a wonderful drummer who looks just like my golf pro! Very disconcerting.

Our Latin class is on an Easter break at the moment. I have to admit to not doing as much 'homework' as I really should, but it is coming on much better than I expected. I have nothing but praise for the distance learning of the Open University, for which I am eternally grateful, but not for languages. I need the face to face, regular input of a good teacher, and it is finally working. Eventually I will be able to put it to good use and read that old gossip Suetonius in the original Latin!