Love Sunshine

Con-sol-ation: snow in April is not such a bad sign

Despair not, sun-lovers. As one swallow does not a summer make, so a rather chilly spring does not necessarily portend a ropey summer. Summer is a game of two halves, and, as we know from experience, an early burst of promise can so easily fail to be sustained.

Last year is a classic example of this principle. A spectacular April, beguiling us with false promise. How me must have said to ourselves, boy o boy, if this is April, how good must the rest of the summer be? Alas, the rest is history. April was our summer. The clouds mustered by early May, and the rain didn't stop until mid to late August. How better to have snow in April and a scorcher to follow. Not naturally an optimist, and lacking any real meteorological nouse, I do have a long memory when it comes to summer performances, and can offer crumbs of comfort from the archives of obsession. The spring of 1994, I recall, wasn't much to right home about, but delivered a rather fine summer. 2006, gave us a miserable spring (the wettest since the 18th centry), but a corker of a summer.

Take sol-ace my friends. The current can only be good news. This optimism has nothing to do with the fact that I write from Spain, where I had 26 degrees and blue skies while Britain shivvered. I write to consol (with sun in Spanish), not to gloat. Honest.