Spring promises: things to look forward to, from chocolate bunnies to flower-filled walks

We've all had enough of these long, dark days, thank you. Yes, we know it's premature, but we're fast-forwarding into spring. We're ready for the new season...I love winter. Frosty mornings and dark days hold no fear for me, while summer means prickly heat and freeform anxiety, chafed thighs and bad fashion. But this winter has been... well. You know, you were there, we all were. We still are, it has lasted five decades already. With little to do and no scope for planning ahead, the 4pm sunset sends my mood into freefall. Mornings are equally bad: the duvet feels like a buffalo has died on my chest and getting out from under it requires an act of will and strength that seems beyond me. Instead, I extend a listless arm for my phone and scroll until rising cortisol levels and the dog's bladder force me vertical. My diet is beige and brown things on other beige and brown things, and like those frogs that slow their metabolism to nothing in freezing temperatures, I am as inert as a stone.If only we could press fast forward and skip over the next few weeks of wet greyness, just this once, pleading exceptional circumstances. Malmesbury has the right idea: the Hope Springs Eternal project dreamed up by residents of the Wiltshire town has seen homes and businesses erupt with evocations of spring: painted butterflies, fresh foliage, pompoms, brightly coloured bunting and plastic bunnies. Continue reading...