Fine start to a winter on the wane

It is the first day of June and, for those who run their lives strictly to calender schedules, it is therefore the first day of winter.

However, there is a school of thought that the actual first day of winter is June 21 - the day and night of the winter solstice.

The shortest day and the longest night. The time at which the sun appears at noon at its lowest altitude above the horizon.

For those who prefer the seasons where you don't have to put a coat on to go out or need to wipe ice from the windscreens, there is some solace at this grimmer time of the year.

Firstly, no one appears to have told Mother Nature that you need to tear the pages off the calender after they are done with.

This meteorological lady, and I say bless her, has clearly left the May page in its place ... to her it is May 1 today and judging by the sunshine and ambient temperatures forecast she's arguably well and truly entitled to believe that.

There are nor'westerlies aplenty over the next few days and, apart from a flurry of rain set to pass through next Tuesday, the whole outlook for the next seven days is sunshine and little wind ... and 17C temperatures.

That's early spring stuff.

The second glimmer of solace is that from June 22, and that's only three weeks away, the days will actually start to get longer. The sun will spend more time in the sky.

It will rise around 7.33am and set about 4.56pm on June 21 ... but just three days later it will set at 4.57pm.

On June 28, just a week after the solstice, it will set at 4.59pm ... that's three more minutes in just the first week.

At this point of joyous celebration that summer is edging closer literally by the minute, I don't think it's timely to point out that the sun, while spending longer in the sky, is still actually moving away from us so the heat is set to wane.

No no no, I shall simply soak up what heat it is still presenting and continue to enjoy hearing people say (and more than I have ever heard in previous years) that "it'll kick in soon ... it's going to bite".

But like the dodgy electric kettle we once bought, there's no guarantee of that.

Was that blossom I spotted out Pakowhai way last Thursday?