A FEW rays of sunshine make all the difference, don’t they? With winter behind us, spring in the air, the crocuses joyously exploding, and the inevitable pictures of gambolling lambs flocking to our newsdesk, it’s my favourite time of year.

A spot of sun really does lift the spirits and I’ve never forgotten the importance of the weather since my first day as a reporter.

The first words I ever wrote for a newspaper – the Scunthorpe Evening Telegraph – were “Cloudy, rain later” when the weather forecast went missing.

It was literally a question of sticking my head out of the window and making a swift assessment. When it started raining in the afternoon, I convinced myself I was a natural.

Fast forward through the seasons to April 2014, and there has continued to be a heated reaction to our new syndicated weather panel.

We’ve had a lot of calls about the sun turning a “gloomy” blue. Readers missed it being “cheery” yellow. It’s important to listen to readers so, as from last Wednesday, we arranged to make the yellow sun rise again in The Northern Echo.

All we need now is a bit more sun breaking out over the North-East.

COMPLAINTS also flooded in about the loss of the tide times in the new panel.

Most papers involved in the syndication service say they no longer require tide times so they were stopped.

Northern Echo readers, however, were quick to wade into the debate. They made it clear they want the tide times in their local paper – especially walkers and anglers.

The times have, therefore, been restored.

The tide has been turned.

TALKING of The Sun, credit where it’s due. In my last column, I had a bit of a go at The Sun for its headline “Where’s willy?” on the story about the Teesside man who had his penis chopped off in an horrific attack.

However, The Sun excelled itself last week when news broke that the FA is charging £90 for England’s World Cup shirt.

The front page headline “Shirt hits the fan” was spot on.

THE Northern Echo prides itself on employing experts in their field. It is, therefore, with a heavy heart that I feel inclined to reveal the following.

Each week, members of our sports desk put a pound in the kitty towards an accumlator bet involving six weekend football matches. They can choose any fixture they like and all they have to do is nominate a home win, away win, or draw.

How many did they get right last weekend?

NONE!

FINALLY, back to the weather. Paul Hart, an old school friend from St Peter’s at South Bank, Middlesbrouugh, made me smile when he tweeted a a reminder about a BBC forecaster in the long gone days of magnetic symbols.

When a letter fell off in the middle of a broadcast, he was moved to tell the viewers: “Sorry for the ‘F’ in fog.”