The weather is a topic that is always on the news and on people's lips. If you're stuck for something to say and the silence is getting awkward the state of the sunshine, rain, wind, heat, cold is a topic I bet nearly everyone has fallen back on.
So isn't it a lovely day? or gosh it's rather cold out there today.
The weather is one of the things in life we have absolutely no control over. We can plan our meals, our work, our holiday but we can't plan on sunshine or rain.
Take these last two weekends. Last weekend I was outside in short sleeves digging in the garden.
We went to the garden shop, bought seeds and seedling, both vegetables and flowers.
My job is the flower garden. Mr Neat takes care of the vegetable garden and he does a damn good job I might add.
So there I was carting buckets of compost from the bins down the back to the garden while Mr Neat filled them for me.
I heard him mutter something about no wonder they are disappearing then a teaspoon hurtled through the air and landed at my feet. Amazing what one finds in the compost. There may well be a couple of potato peelers in there as well.
Anyway the weather was just beautiful, but we decided against buying tomato plants yet even though we do have a sheltered spot.
We have been lulled into a false sense of security before. Planting out beans in the middle of September only to have Mr Frost creep in during the night and kill the lot of them.
Just as well because winter wasn't quite done with us. On Friday when the sky turned from blue to grey to black and the cold rain set in it was almost like Mother Nature was saying Ha-ha that will teach you to put your coat and boots at the back of the wardrobe. I'm not finished with you.
It pays to be patient; the seeds are planted so hopefully by the time they are ready to go in the garden the sun will stay out.
That's if they survive the cat who has decided she likes to sit on top of them, maybe she'll hatch them.
The broccoli's nearly all gone, we are eating the last of the carrots the silver beet is looking a bit poorly and the leeks have black bugs on them.
But on the bright side the raspberries and strawberries are looking good and the garden is dug over, ready and waiting. Bring on spring.
FOOTNOTE: Origins of our season names
Winter: No mythical god ... just cold! The season of wind and white snow, hence the name 'winter'.
Spring: The time when new plants spring up after a harsh winter.
Summer: From Old Norse 'sumarsdag', the time for lots of sunshine.
Autumn: The time for reaping and harvesting the main crops of the year. The old English name for this season of 'harvest' was replaced by the Latin autumnus in the 16th century.
Linda Hall is assistant editor at Hawke's Bay Today.
