That's one lesson I've learned already from 50/90: if you feel you're lacking song inspiration, try and write something funny (or at least drily humorous). Well, at least it works for me :-)

Herewith, 50/90 Challenge song 17: a wry expression of gratitude to the British summer of 2012, which has - for a few precious days, at least - taken a break from endless cold, wind, heavy cloud and near-incessant rain, and given us a tantalising glimpse of what the season's conditions really should be like... (I thought the end result reminded me a bit of Jake Thackray, though my powers of wordplay pale in quality next to his!)

Ironically, given the subject matter, this was my first 50/90 demo to be recorded (at least partly) "al fresco", hence the birdsong, etc. you can hear in the background. I went outside at lunchtime with the guitalele and my wife's Yamaha Pocketrak stereo recorder (on extended loan for 50/90!) and laid down the basic instrument and vocal track. I could've left it at that, but later in the day I loaded the track into my multitrack and overdubbed electric tremelo guitar, bass guitar, djembe drum and stick-tambourine.

Apologies for the occasional "flub" and dodgy chord - well, it's a demo, and I didn't have long to record the basic track...

A couple of references for non-British listeners: "August Bank Holiday" is a public holiday in the UK, usually the last Monday in August - it's pretty much seen as the unofficial end of summer, just before the schools restart (basically, like Labor Day in the US). "Southend" refers to the seaside resort of Southend-on-Sea in south-east England, and in this context should be taken to mean "generic town by the sea where many Brits head for as soon as the sun comes out in summer" :-)