Fair April, sweetest month of all

Aah April! I am sure if we were to conduct a poll to find out what month was the most popular, surely April would be at the top of the list.

After the past few energysapping months when we all felt like fish out of water, what a pleasure to bask in the benign autumn weather we have been blessed with these past few weeks.

The next few months, as East Londoners know, are the best of the year – sunny days and virtually no wind.

Those of us who find it difficult to survive when the temperature reaches the upper 30s might put February right at the bottom.

Apart from Valentine’s Day perhaps, sticky and humid February has no redeeming feature except that it is for most of the time two days shorter than any other month of the year.

Preoccupation with Christmas takes care of hot December and the impetus of the holiday spirit lingers long enough to launch us well into January.

And there is nothing serious to complain about in November either, while we tend to associate the winter months with colds in the nose and numbness in the toes.

Spring, too, may have its supporters, but in this part of the world we relate it to wind and yet more plastic-laden wind. But April!

Who can find fault with April?

It is the month for poets and lovers to walk tall. Suitable rhyming words do not readily come to mind, but any poet worth his salt should be able to rattle off something about the “tween season of delight, of amber days and cool scented nights.”

By April most honest citizens have paid off those terrifying bills which follow in the wake of the festive season.

The children have been fully equipped for the school year now that the Covid restrictions have been eased and should be in robust health after long doses of the sunshine vitamin.

In April, the sun rises at a rational hour and sets early enough to limit the evening gardening session. Indeed for gardeners, April provides the minimum of essential duties.

Weeds which have defied an all-out assault through the spring and summer, begin to collapse and wither of their own accord when the crisper autumn breezes stir the bronzing leaves.

There are fewer suicides and more weddings in April than in any other month.

This is the season for throwing out the chest and tripping through the dew!

So long as the calendar includes an April, God is in his heaven and all is right with the world.