Editorial: Bring on spring festivities

Spring appeared to have sprung yesterday, which made a change given that for the three days leading up to Friday's warmer airs it had been positively autumnal - even wintry.

So it was fine to see shadows being cast at last, and people sitting at outdoor tables without having to turn their backs to the cool southwesterly.

The temperature gauge declared that it was 20C which was much more appropriate for the end of the third week of spring.

Today's forecast is for gusting winds, morning and evening showers and a more modest 16C.

Back to normal then ...

I heard two schools of thought and opinion this week about spring weather that were interesting.

The first theory was that it takes the arrival of daylight saving (on September 28) to really underline spring.

The other, and this is quite widely accepted across the Bay, is that the real clement stuff does not emerge until the event staged to celebrate all things spring-like.

The Hawke's Bay Show.

Earlier in the week I was talking to some of those who have been toiling long and hard to get the great event stapled together.

It was agreed that in the minds of many people, particularly those who have been venturing to the showgrounds for one, two or three days of October for several decades, that it was regarded as "the spring show".

A time when those equinox westerly winds threaten the sunhats.

When the kids get to see big sheep and little sheep, and we all get to see the best of the Bay in terms of what it produces.

The Hawke's Bay Show is going to turn 151 when the gates open on October 22, and despite that grand old age it will have a spring in its step.

I was staggered at the logistics involved, and like many had simply gone to the show in years gone by and assumed it was pretty well a case of putting up fences and tents.

No way.

It is a remarkable feat and while there, with a month still to go, I could see the stakes and pegs and measures starting to go to work.

I can put up with these wretched last cool doses of the stubborn lingering whispers of winter because the great show is on the way.

A good show of spring.