On Apr 24, 9:28*am, John Hall wrote:
In article ,
*Robin Nicholson writes:

Well, a driver at work wound his window down and informed me today
that it was going to be a poor summer. What..another one?
Yes! And the explanation is that the rooks are nesting half way down
the trees hereabouts.
Well there we have it, gents!

That may prove to be a poor (summer forecast) as well as a (poor summer)
forecast.
--
John Hall
* * * * * *"If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts;
* * * * * * but if he will be content to begin with doubts,
* * * * * * he shall end in certainties." * * * Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

I almost posted exactly the same!

In discussions like this, the name Bill Foggitt usually arises at some
point. Charming old fellow. He had an association with "Calendar" on
Yorkshire TV and other regional magazine programs, which I watched at
the time. He continued his family's keeping of weather records and
trotted out the weather lore that he'd learned from his father and
grandfather and from the records he kept at Thirsk, where he lived.
The % accuracy of the forecasts was highly disputable (he claimed 88%
- for exactly what, I don't know, but memories are fond and some years
after his death, he is remembered as a weather lore seer, whose long-
range forecasts bettered the Met Office's efforts. It was all hugely
entertaining - he really was almost revered in his native Yorkshire
and in all sorts of pockets of weather lore enthusiasm around the
world and some of his shorter-range forecasting was built on sound
principles - I'm not sure about the usefulness of some of his
precursors of the type of approaching season we might have got!

The Grauniad's obituary is a good read. I read the Times' obituary in
2004 with some sadness, I must admit!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2004/...ies.obituaries

Paul