April Fool!

As usual this morning I was making my kids' packed lunches between about 7.15 and 7.30, and catching a little bit of the Today Programme on Radio 4 before anyone came down and switched it to Terry on Radio 2. (I have two kids who are real TYGs. They even change to Radio 2 from Radio 1. How times have changed!)

When I tuned in there were a couple of young fellas talking to John Humphries about their allotments (I'm sure this was today, though it could have been yesterday now I come to think of it).

They were saying how an increasing number of young people, particularly students, are choosing to grow their own veg, and are even operating allotment-shares. I'm impressed! I come from a generation of students who felt we had to live up to the layabout image people had of us, rather than do anything too creative or wholesome.

Anyway, the guys were bemoaning the fact that so much allotment land is being reclaimed by town and borough councils as development sites. Crying shame really. I haven't got round to digging over my back garden to a veggie patch yet, though it is something I often dream about from the comfort of my armchair in front of the gardening programme on BBC 2, but I do like the look of a well-tended allotment. There's so much industry and potential reflected in it, all that tender loving care to build the bean wigwams and rotivate the soil, and all those little green shoots under cloches, and rhubarb under forcing pots... I get quite excited by it all.

So - it would be a travesty if all these plots get hidden under the foundations of yet more new builds. Apparently there's a bye-law that requires every council in the country to provide enough allotment land to satisfy local demand. Te fellas on the radio were recommending that if you're interested in having an allotment then you find six other like-minded people and form a pressure group. Or at least approach your council and say "Please could you provide us with some allotment space?" Sounds like a good idea to me.

ANYWAY, then my kids came down so we had to switch to Radio 2 just in time to hear Lynn Bowles give us the nationwide traffic report. This always makes me feel a bit bored, as we only have to go half a mile on our bikes to school in the morning, so aren't really affected by what's happening on the M8 north of Glasgow, but I guess I need to be a bit more public-spirited and send out compassionate vibes to those people who are experiencing traffic problems in those places.

SO, because my radio input takes this pattern every morning, I usually miss Radio 4's Thought for the Day and have to catch Pause for Thought on Radio 2 instead. This morning they had a London vicar talking about the importance of being silly and light-hearted, and how it's good that we've got a day in the calendar to celebrate this.

Although I had to listen hard not to get distracted by THAT TONE that Pause for Thought guests usually have - you know what I mean, that tone that sounds like they're still rehearsing their spiel in front of the bathroom mirror at home while smiling at themselves in a bit of a self-satisfied way and congratulating themselves on the dubious glory of being a regular guest on this spot - I did actually enjoy what he was talking about. It is important to be silly sometimes and not take things too seriously. I'm glad he brought my attention to it.

Personally I grew up dreading April Fools Day because I would usually be one of the class to find a flour bomb on my chair, or what's worse, not be able to come up with any prank funnier than those of Anne Devine or Shona MacCallum.

In contrast, I fear that my kids are experiencing a very sanitised version of it, as they had no pranks to tell me about at all on their return from school. The closest thing my son could describe to any April Foolery was a playground conversation about a news item someone had heard on the radio saying that Big Ben's DONG has been replaced by a DI-DI-DI-DI.

Now I wonder which station that was on.....