Two Sunny Weekends

Sunday 21st April

Two sunny weekends doesn’t make a Summer, or even a spring because the temperature is still un-seasonally cold, but it does make everyone a whole lot happier.

We are again at Walton, and it is even sunnier and slightly warmer than last weekend.  The town is packed with not only the local residents, but the caravan owners are pouring down to air and clean their vans for the summer.  All along the front you can see beach huts being opened, awnings being spread, wind-breaks unraveled, deckchairs unfolded.  And then there are the day-trippers, who on a whim have descended on the town, to walk along the front, breathe in that fresh sea air, maybe a stroll on the beach then into town for fish and chips or pie and mash.  And everyone has a smile on their faces, including the resolute shop and café owners who had a thin time of it last year, and some are hanging on by the skin of their teeth just trying to survive.  But all those worries are cast aside, people are out spending at last.  And whether we are in a triple-dip or just flat-lining really doesn’t matter to most people.  They are somehow coping, and now that the sun is here they just want to relax, tilt their faces to the warmth, and send a few pounds on a nice lunch.

Amazing – two sunny weekends in a row – is that some sort of record?