This was twenty to six on the 16th of February – well, not actually in Lichfield, the Waysides of which remain the Serenaders’ usual habitat, but on the Dorset coast where the Revd J. Olly Glum and Emily Blue were researching their theory that it isn’t as wet on the edges of the country as it is here at its centre. (Their theory was found to be hopelessly wide of the mark.)

Anyway, what it does show is that it is getting marginally lighter with each passing February day, if, that is, you can see through all the mist and rain. And what that means is that the ol’ T-chest is having its Yuletide decor peeled off, and we’re beginning to think that warmer, drier weather might indeed be “an actual thing”.

Intensive rehearsals start next week, or rather a ramshackle bunch of people (some of whom really are getting old) will be gathering to blow the dust off a ramshackle bunch of instruments (some of which are hardly instruments at all) and exchange blank looks each time the Revd mentions a song they played last summer.

Wish us luck!