There's an old saying !

Just a touch of snow on the hill to the left of the steeple of Daventry's Holy Cross Church to herald the cold winter we have been promised - which we always are with festive phrases such as:

"lots of berries on the trees this year; we are in for a hard winter":

"we shall suffer for this wet mild summer; it will be a cold winter":

"if leaves fall not by Martinmas Day, a cruel winter is on the way".

Not as cold as when I was a boy. No double glazing; no central heating; no spin dryers; open fires with smoke blowing out into the room, a fire guard with steam rising from washing hanging on it to dry so you couldn't feel the heat anyway.  A time when there were always lots of berries on the trees, the summers were always wet and the leaves never fell off by Martinmas Day and flu injections hadn't been invented..

"When festive phrase comes fast and thick, methinks the teller needs a kick" - or such other rhyme as fits the bill!