Five signs of spring

[shewhomust]

As if the equinox was a signal, we took not one but two days out, including the first visit of the year to the coast. I though of this at the time as emerging from hibernation, but that would suggest it was the start of something: in fact, I've spent much of the week-and-a-half since then hitting deadlines which had unexpectedly come closer as a result of those two days off. Nonetheless, there are signs that spring is stirring. Starting with those two days off:

• On the Friday we accepted J's invitation to lunch and an exhibition about the history of food and drink on South Tyneside: this was to be durham_rambler's birthday treat (deferred). Both J and durham_rambler had morning commitments, but we set off at midday, driving away from the city, where the sun was shining, to the sea fret of the coast. At durham_rambler's request, we lunched at the Marsden Grotto, and gazed out at the grey sky over the grey sea while we ate fishy things. Then on to the South Shields museum, one of those magnificently random local collections:
  
  
  
  
  
  Here's a selection of their "treasures"; the only information offered beside it is a sign saying "Rory, the South Shields Lion (suggested by Lucas Ball, aged 7)". The exhibition - titled 'SCRAN' - looks very much as if it had been compiled by going through the collection picking out whatever might be fitted onto the theme: a cabinet of Roman pottery, watercolour paintings of local farms, the inevitable collection of Be-Ro cookbooks, oil paintings of local shops, histories of local businesses, pre-eminently Wright's biscuits, whose 'Little Mischief' mascot (a painting by Mabel Lucie Attwell to which they had purchased the rights) is the face of the exhibition. I liked - less for the exhibit itself than for the accompanying label:
  

  Paper bag, mid 20th century, from Duncans grocery: This paper bag is a rare survival, having been used to store wedding cake decorations kept by Elsie Mary Bell (nee Law) who wed John Robertson Law at St Aidan's Church, South Shields on 16 September 1940. Mary's beautiful wedding dress can be seen on display downstairs in the museum's 'Treasures Gallery'.

  
  
  At the last minute we were tipped off (by another J, as it happens) about an 'archaeology day' organised by the County's Archaeology department: a day of talks in Bishop Auckland Town Hall. Not particularly spring-like - we were indoors all day, and anyway it was raining - but worth the early start: a fine and varied collection of talks (a farmhouse which conceals a Gothick manor house associated with the poet Thomas Gray, mapping the Roman road network, a previously unknown neolithic / bronze age ceremonial site near the Tees, pretty things brought to the Portable Antiquities scheme during the year) and a chance to catch up with J.



• There are windows open all over the house. I wish this were a celebration of fine spring weather, but no, it's a sign that the painters have arrived to work on the new windows. The weather is fine enough (the work wouldn't be possible otherwise) but it's still chilly and the house smells of paint.



• This means more early mornings - or at any rate, earlier than our usual, up and dressed before the painters are due at eight. Monday morning was a bit of a struggle, no chance of gradual adjustment to Summer Time, but we made it. They - or we - have tomorrow and Friday off, and then they come back on Monday to finish the job. I'm looking forward to seeing how the new windows look once the scaffolding is removed...



• We have local elections this year, for the County and Parish Councils. durham_rambler is standing again for the Parish Council, as an Independent. I don't really understand why, because he has, since losing his seat four years ago, continued to attend committee meetings and contribute the the Council's work on planning; and there was no obligation to attend full council meetings, or do anything he didn't feel like. Ah, well, no doubt he has his reasons. So the last few days have been all about submitting his nomination papers and drafting a leaflet, and the month between now and polling day (which is May Day) will be all about delivering those leaflets, with the help of his little band of volunteers. "Does this mean we won't be taking any time out over Easter?" I asked. "Well, we have a lunch date for your birthday..."



• To begin at the beginning: / It is spring... I have been re-rereading Under Milk Wood - which is a story for another post. But my, isn't it full of spring!