Maytime.

Our ancient apple tree, which was 15 years old when we moved in here 38 years ago this week, has still produced abundant blossom. 
It is pruned each year in the autumn. 
Standing at the top of the garden it has seen many changes to the layout down the years. It's apples are still edible and sweet. 
I had an "earworm" going round my head as May arrived today. 
When I was in my first teaching post in a small church school up in Rossendale, Lancashire, on the first of May as they dutifully assembled in the old school hall for morning assembly, we used to sing
"Sing a Song of Maytime, 
Sing a song of Spring,
Flowers are in their beauty, 
Birds are on the wing......."
They loved this lilting piece and sang very enthusiastically!

Being a village school surrounded by fields and hills with no National Curriculum on the horizon, the year ran close to the seasons.
There was a colony of rooks outside my classroom window, and they made such a noise as they began to build their nests and then rear their young. 
It was the early '70's.
A lot of things went on which would not be allowed now!
The annual bringing in of frogspawn which the kids loved to  watch hatch into tadpoles in a large glass tank then change into small frogs. 
We once had 10 small frogs and with the parents' permissions, and escort, we went up to the fields and deposited them back into a small pond. The fields were filled with buttercups, cowslips, mayflowers and daisies.
We managed to produce 7 Cabbage white butterflies using the same tank the tadpoles had vacated, obviously with different leaves and vegetation in it once it had been cleaned. They loved watching the caterpillars munching, then eventually discovered they had turned into chrysalises. The day we came back into the classroom to discover the new butterflies flitting about under the ventilated lid, was exciting for them
We took them outside to release them into the
air. 
 It was a class of ages 5 -7 years old. The other class being the same. There were only the two classes in the school. It sounds idyllic but had its drawbacks. 
Being only the Head and myself, plus a dinner lady who doubled up as a class assistant, I was on playground duty for half of the week, and if the Head had a meeting, those days as well. 
But being my first job, I was happy there. 
The five village schools in the area, were closed and we were relocated to a brand new Primary School, which had been built to take over. It was overcrowded from Day 1. 
After we were married in 1973, we moved to Portsmouth in 1974 , which seemed a million miles away then, where I worked in two different Primary schools, until our Matthew was born. We moved as it was  Stephen's first job as an Articled Clerk working with the City Council. 
We relocated again up to Sutton Coldfield in 1981, when he began to work for Birmingham City Council.     

So my "earworm" brought back lots of memories and I discovered the song being sung by children on YouTube. 
Here is the link:

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw-oRXq_rUI