Spring

It is almost time to say goodbye to February fill dyke as my mother used to call it. We have had a lot of wet days interspersed with some brilliant sunshine and I shall be glad when March comes.
When I was nine years old our school held a Spring Pageant. Because I had long fair hair I was chosen to be the Spirit of Spring. I was dressed in a sleeveless green dress and had bare feet. (The bare feet worried me rather.) Iwas given some elocution lessons by my teacher. She was hoping to get rid of any traces of Cockney. I said my piece from the Bible.

"For lo, the winter is past.
The rain is over and gone.
Flowers appear on the earth
And the time of the singing of birds is come".

This I said in a cut glass voice. It must have been rather reminiscent of Joyce Grenfell being frightfully posh !
The passage goes on to say "And the voice of the turtle is heard in our land". This mystified me for many years as I tried to imagine what a turtle's voice would sound like. Much, much later I discovered it meant a turtle dove !