It’s early March but the sun is out and the thermometer is saying thirteen degrees. This can only mean one thing, summer has arrived in North East England. This is as good as it’s going to get. The tightly knotted buds on the Hydrangea are starting to unravel, the Cherry blossom is frosting the trees in the town’s arboretum and all of the signs we associate with summer at this latitude are starting to emerge from their winter hibernation.
The mowers are out and their gentle hum gives a background note to the day, one that you forget about during the long winter months and is reinforced by the smell of new mown grass. This is added to by the scent of barbecue lighter fluid which hangs thickly in the air. It may still get dark at six in the evening but we are determined to squeeze out every mild day that presents itself. As soon as it gets dark the mercury is going to drop into single figures but there is no way that it will be allowed to stop our plans. Sales of sausages and burgers go through the roof at the local supermarket and the fridges are filled with beer.
Windows and doorsteps are cleaned. Cars are washed but only after returning from the local tip with the first load of garden waste for the year.
The shops are filled with pastel coloured sweaters and nautical look fashions, their crisp blue and white cutting through the drab colours that we have been used to over the past months. Every year the spring season is the same but we fall for it every time, it renews our sense of fashion and has us reaching for our purses. Out on the streets white linen trousers and open toed sandals are the requisite wear, for the women and camouflage shorts and flip flops for the men. It is often said that the English don’t have any summer clothes, just holiday clothes which are more appropriate for the promenade at Torrevieja in August but we’ve spent good money on them and we need to get more wear than just our two weeks on holiday abroad.
Temperatures are higher than average for this time of year but summer is a fleeting affair up here. By the end of the week, or even by tomorrow it will be back to being cold and wet and windy. We need to be ready at a moment’s notice, like mayflies to shed our casts and make the most of the brief respite from the normally dull and overcast weather.
You’ll have to excuse me as I need to go and prep the salad.
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 