SPRING BEGINS WITH COLD SOUTHERLY GALE

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27444, 2 September 1954, Page 10

SPRING BEGINS WITH COLD SOUTHERLY GALE

Spring began yesterday. While thite nodding daffodils were being bruised and buffeted. While the soft white' clouds supposedly typical of the time were being swept across the sky before a southerly gale, the statisticians were turning their pages and preparing to make a new set of entries. It might have required a second look at the calendar to confirm that yesterday was indeed spring, but for all that there are many signs of the season and pointers to more pleasant days ahead. In Christchurch shops, poppies have been brightening the windows for two or three weeks, and there are narcissi, anemones and glasshouse freesias for those able to buy them, or forced to do so through domestic circumstance. Butchers, all smiling, are preparing to put up notices about the' sale of “new season’s lamb” before the lambs have lost their tails, and departmental stores are advertising swimsuits which argue very clearly that warmer days are coming. , Bgg prices have taken their welcome plunge, tourist and travel offices are feeling the first real impact of the pale-faced clients who will later win a much more fiery appearance than almost any mishap would justify. In the Parks, the children have been flyJ“ tes durin « the holidays, as children have done for years, and if today there are rather more splendid Kites, and more ready-made ones than in the days when boys made their the mo 2 t unpromising they are flown with same enthusiasm as of yore. to the inadequathe indoor tables for weary months, are beginning to look out their pavilion windows more and more often so® £. thr< l ug ? °? e,r K ear i n readi- , the 01 th - eir season on A Galaxlas attenuates—whitebait to the customers—is a profitoM,iS ast i me li, are J alrea<l y working diligently. Another definite sign of spring wLVv'L 0 / oonsiderable importance to thT^. o Ze u land s lnte rnal economy—all racah °rses are a month older than they cel . ebrated their birthdays, a "J? a ? s ®’ on August 1, but their supporters are not much wis6r. ini” ) t ? e .. straete ’ wlUows are gainand, P l 6 blosa om trees Honl 7 ly co ' n P leted their preparations to pose for the photogranhers Foals are running in the paddocks, the mm™”-'’? r Oor u as just ,ent hia tawnmower in for sharpening and setting and women are busy-buying a hat and th2 e^i and a nd nandbag to go with the. gloyes they have been given for their birthdays. Birds may be harmonious harbingers of spring, but they "Lanning t° tell the good tidings f a to er , too early for those who do not aHHuin°n sta , rt S eir day at dawn - Other additions to the scenery are curtain cu s£ion covers on the clothes lines, ° UtWard " gns of inward

hyjintng e mad 8 e a &id and it would not be spring at all without the cheerful crocus. The lawns are starting to come on more quickly although this year their growth seems not to have been arrested at all, and

at the more practical end of the gerdta the rhubarb is making its appMrehc* The lengthening days now allow the eager gardener to go outside after hil evening meal. For the others, there U leisure to inspect what has to be dona It is not without significance that the penultimate day of winter waa made pleasant by temperatures rising as high as 65.2 degrees, while on the first daj of spring they fell to 50.7 degree* There will be other - such disappoints ments. The tomatoes may be lost to e tote frost, the birds may get all early peas, hours of fishing may irt bring a single bite, and first slip may reject everything that comes his WMi but spring remains, to all but the mf consolable, a season of freshness, aM flowers, and hope. it