If you were paying any attention at all, you will have noticed that our Signs of Spring series has been as quiet and colourful as snow for quite some time. Nature turned and exposed us as precipitous and reckless in announcing that the time of Venus had arrived. We feel duly penitent.

Although our best hopes have been dashed before, we nonetheless continue with that optimism that characterises the blessed and the idiotic, and resume our celebration of the rebirth of the year.