SO, the weekend finally sorted out the seasons. A few degrees of frost and the garden no longer entertains the strangest neighbours: winter jasmine, chamomile, hellebore, nasturtium, holly berries and geranium.

And what the half-inch of crocus shoots will make of it will be revealed in a couple of months.

The reason needs no more seeking than the vivid delight of the recently departed leaves, but reason and season were not in accord at a market stall in Darlington last week.

A teenager/twenties paused to ask for a nectarine. Sorry, said the assistant, nectarines are not in season. Oh, I didn't know they had a season was the reply.

We have only ourselves to blame for this - when stalls regularly offer at the same time strawberries and leeks, who can wonder if someone thinks the growing season is just another old fashioned notion.

Out of line

PEOPLE in Aiskew feel congratulations are in order to North Yorkshire County Council for having part of the A684 smoothly resurfaced in only one week instead of the two originally envisaged.

If only the contractor called in to reinstate road markings - in this case naming and shaming Hatton Traffic Management - had not left curling strips of white lining tape strewn around verges, to be collected by litter-conscious locals and stuffed into their own black bin bags in an attempt to keep the place tidy. County Hall, have a quiet word.

On the beat

IT struck Spectator as somewhat ironic that only a fortnight after residents of Upper Teesdale were complaining about the allegedly over-zealous police patrols stopping motorists at random after dark, a survey has ranked the area the best in the country for quality of life - using the low crime rate (18 per thousand per year) and the dale's relatively cheap housing as criteria.

With the rest of the region - particularly North Yorkshire - complaining bitterly about how infrequently police officers are spotted in their neck of the woods, the folk of Middleton-in-Teesdale and environs should be counting their blessings.

Quick off the mark

ALL credit to the Dun Cow at Sedgefield. Only a couple of days after entertaining George W Bush, the pub's Christmas and New Year party menu brochure pops through Spectator's door.

No mention of being the preferred choice of the most powerful man in the Western world, so clearly the president's visit was something of a surprise. But Dubya might find the Christmas day lunch a bit steep at £56.50, even if it includes a present from Santa for the children.