It has been a poor year for toms.

When folk in widely separated parts of the country all have similar problems, there must be a link somewhere.

Discussing the situation, I have concluded that toms do not like the prolonged arid spell with for the UK horribly high temperatures. 

The heat was too much for me, and I guess the toms did not cope with the rapid rise in temperatures during the day. Nor did they like the resultant weeks of overcast rain-bearing skies.

If I think back to when I used to help in Dad's greenhouse at home and compare it with the same greenhouse some 30 years later situated here, I've never known such a poor year for toms. Hey ho! Another sign of climate change?

Ch-ch-ch changes

This has been a momentous week, mostly sadness. The untimely loss of someone who touched millions by his acting and comedic skills. 

The media have been awash with obits, some gentle, others not so. R. I. P. Robin Williams.

'Thought for the Day' on BBC Radio 4 is something I listen to rarely.  These days I am up and about well before the broadcast time.

Today, the speaker was Anne Atkins. I'll have to wait until tomorrow to listen again. She spoke of the melancholy associated with the life of a clown, comedy-tragic or tragic comedy and seamlessly worked in classical examples from Greek literature to the present day. 

Usually, if the radio was on and she was introduced as speaker, I'd turn the radio off. 

'Anne Atkins, a vicar's wife and Christian author is a regular guest in the three-minute slot,'

On the rare occasions I have listened to her my 'hackles have risen' and I am not alone, search her name to find examples.

tbc...

Now, thanks to the BBC web page I can quote...

"The year is 1806, the place London. A man seeks help for depression. “Normally I’d prescribe medication,” his doctor says. “But the pantomime on at Covent Garden will do you a lot more good. I cried with laughter. Go and see Harlequin and Mother Goose. Grimaldi will cure you.” 

“Ah,” sad the man sadly. “I am Grimaldi.” 

Not waving but drowning. The aria Vesti la giubba from Leoncavallo’s opera Pagliacci opens, Put on your costume and powder your face. People want to laugh. Turn your tears and distress into jest, your pain and sobbing into a funny face... Until the harlequin’s real life overwhelms him and the comedy turns to tragedy."

I had to find a more trustworthy translation...and ended up listening to the late, great Pavoroti performing that aria. 

"To act! While out of my mind,
I no longer know what I say,
or what I do!
And yet it's necessary... make an effort!"

I recommend watching Pavoroti singing the Aria and thinking about Robin Williams and the gaping hole his loss has left behind.