Here comes the summer, part two. The days start getting longer after the Winter Solstice though it takes a while to notice any difference.

 Obligingly the sun shone today. I regularly walk over Windmill Hill in my hometown Hitchin. The view to the hills on the horizon is my barometer for what the weather has in store. I can report that today the outlook was was sunny but a biting cold wind was whipping in from the west so summer is not here quite yet.

 NB I rarely watch television but it was drawn to my attention recently that this view has been the subject of several BBC One 'idents' for a couple of years now. The brief clips with the BBC logo appear before programmes throughout the day corresponding to it being filmed morning, noon and night.

 I suppose Hitchin represents a kind of 'everytown' idea of an English town. The skyline has some old buildings, some new ones and the countryside lies beyond. I say English but the same idents are broadcast in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland though they do have a few towns and hills of their own.