Spring

When I lived in the US, autumn was always my favourite season: a new school year to be excited about, in part because that brought new clothes and new shoes but also new notebooks and pens and pencils.  I liked school most of the time. I still love the stationery items I associate with school. Autumn was also blessed relief from the sweltering stickiness that was summer in Oklahoma. Though high desert - Salt Lake's climate - is arid, it was still nice to look forward to the fresher air and the dramatic foliage in the mountains.

Here in Britain, there sometimes isn't that much to discern between autumn and winter, or for that matter between autumn and spring, temperature-wise. Spring brings a bit more sunshine but also a lot of wind. What looks like a beautiful day out of the window will send you back inside for a warmer coat and those gloves. However, spring also brings England's best floral displays, her greenest fields and at least a hope that this year we might have summer. So I find that now spring is probably my favourite season.

War memorial in North Shields with crocuses (Bill says croc-eye?)

We continue our quest to use things up.  We spent £110 on food in February. It would have been £83 but I was out with Vivien in the area where I buy fruit and veg and rather than pass up the opportunity I picked up a load of food. 

One of the surprises of using things up is space, which of course should have been obvious. I have long mutilated containers to get every last drop, used long handled brushes to finish off cosmetics, squeezed and re-squeezed the toothpaste tube to make it last several weeks longer, but eventually there is an empty place on the shelf. The surprising bit isn't the fact of the space but that it has motivated me to do something quite out of character: spring cleaning. Who'd a thought?