Smell of spring gives way to signs of early summer

Growing season is upon us, the time of year I always look forward to. This is when I plant the tomatoes and courgettes that have been wintering in my father’s greenhouse. I turn giddy with ideals of the fat off the land.

It is growing weather, too. Sunny spells interrupted by bouts of late spring showers. Or dare we whisper “early summer”?

Certainly this week, roaming from Norfolk to the North York Moors, I’ve seen those great indicators of summer: swifts, swallows and even cuckoos back from Africa and preparing their nests (or the imminent invasion of them in the case of the last). Growing season extends far beyond the confines of my vegetable patch.

Days grow longer, too. Look at the sunset times clawing back ever more minutes from the night. In Stornoway the sun does not set until 9.48pm – a full 50 minutes after Exeter at the bottom of the country – and there is still a month to go before the longest day.

This weekend it will feel warm in the sun – where it appears from behind the clouds. It will certainly be above the typical spring average of 46F (7.7C). Otherwise it will be fairly damp, scattered showers bringing that joyous smell of spring, a fragrance rendered more acute by moisture in the air. This is the smell of things stirring, of budburst, green shoots and roots snaking fresh tunnels through the warm earth. You can smell it as keenly on an urban street corner as walking through a wood.

Expect more of this changeable weather until Tuesday. By then the showers will have retreated to the east and the sun will once more be in the ascendancy. And my tomato plants will have grown an inch – an early summer harvest on the way.