reflections, daffodils persist, ITMA

The reflections of passers-by in shop windows seem in some ways more interesting and worth exploring than the passers-by themselves.

Daffodils and other spring flowers, which appeared earlier than usual this year, have, perhaps because of the cold weather, lasted longer than usual. That other daffodil poem - by Robert Herrick - which begins "Fair daffodils we weep to see you haste away so soon," is thereby contradicted. I shan't be so sorry this year when eventually they haste away.

In the window of a charity shop is a little piece of history. It is a faded box of old, 12-in records of ITMA, the radio show which nearly everyone in the country listened to during World War II. The dates 1939 -1949 are given and there is a drawing of the star of the show Tommy Handley on the label. I don't know what such things are worth, but for a collector, it strikes me that the price, £50, would not be a lot to pay.