TODAY, June 21, is often regarded as the official first day of summer as well as being the longest day of the year, although some believe that summer really begins on the first day of June.

The latter theory is that summer comprises the entire months of June, July and August, with autumn being September, October and November, winter being December, January and February, and spring being March, April and May. In some ways, the latter idea makes a lot of sense; it's a neat system, having the seasons nicely parcelled into complete months, but the reason for our present method of calculation is that seasons start on vital dates so far as the behaviour of the sun is concerned, i.e. the spring equinox, the autumn equinox, the longest day and the shortest day.

It is inevitable, in England, that we discuss the weather as it affects each of the seasons - and our weather probably has more bearing on our perception of the seasons than any officially determined date - although there is an old Yorkshire Dales saying that the year consists of nine months of winter and three months of backend.

The term backend, of course, is one which refers to the autumn and although it does not appear in all the conventional English dictionaries, it does feature in one of my specialist dictionaries of the North Riding dialect.

It seems it has its origins in the Danish bagende which refers to the latter end of any period. People do refer to the backend of the week, for example. On that basis, I suppose we could refer equally to a winter backend, spring backend, summer backend and autumn backend but in this part of the world we tend to associate the word with the latter part of the entire year.

Certainly in this region, any reference to "t'backend" means autumn - perhaps not the official autumn, but that part of the year before Christmas such as October and November when the nights draw in, the weather becomes cooler and the leaves begin to fall.

It's fair to say that most of us instinctively know when the weather turns "backendish" even if we are not quite sure how, or if, it is associated with any of the equinoctial periods.

WHAT kind of animal is a beech marten? Most of us know about that group of animals, all related to the weasel, which includes the pine marten, the polecat, the ferret, the mink and the otter, along with the weasel and the stoat. Ferrets are the domesticated variety and over the years, many ferrets have escaped from their owners to live in the wild, and in some cases over a long period they have reverted to the colouring of the polecat.

These are now known as polecat-ferrets, although some polecat-ferrets are the result of escaped ferrets interbreeding with local polecats.

One of the most handsome of these ferret-like creatures is the pine marten with its rich dark brown fur and its creamy-yellow throat and ears while the mink, slightly smaller, has a coat which is much darker, especially when wet.

The name beech marten crops up in Sir Alfred Pease's Dictionary of the North Riding Dialect which he published in 1928 with notes and comments by my predecessor, Maj J Fairfax-Blakeborough.

Sir Alfred also makes reference to the sweetmart, which is another name for the same animal. The latter name is in direct contrast with foulmart which was a common name for the polecat in parts of Yorkshire. This became corrupted locally into several variations, such as foumart, fummart, foomart and even fullmoor.

There are differing opinions as to why it was called the foulmart, one being that it exudes a strong and unpleasant smell especially when alarmed or cornered, although an alternative is that the name derives from the French for marten, which is fouine. I think the French word foine means beechmast too, but this is not in my French dictionary.

In his book, Sir Alfred expresses his belief that the beech marten, under its alternative name of sweetmart, was extinct in the North Riding by the turn of the last century, the final survivor to his knowledge, being killed in Mulgrave Woods near Whitby about 1880. He then adds that polecats were exceedingly rare with some being located at Rosedale Head around 1912 but his comments show that he does not regard the sweetmart and the foulmart as the same animal.

It is possible that the pine marten is the same creature as the beech marten, in spite of their names suggesting differing habitats in two types of woodland, but if Sir Alfred is right, then it does seem there used to be beech martens (or sweetmarts) in the North Riding. And the alternative name does suggest they did not smell quite so badly as the foulmart!

Certainly, the pine marten does not smell as awful as the polecat and it does appear that the pine marten was, for some reason, known as the beech marten in this part of England.

The pine marten was equally at home in the trees or on the ground - in the trees it will take birds and their eggs, while on the ground it destroys rabbits, voles, mice, hares and game birds, even attacking domestic poultry. Some stories say it will even attack lambs or take trout and as if that is not enough, it also enjoys bilberries, strawberries, brambles and cherries - and honey which it takes from beehives. Quite a character.

Incidentally, the name marten used to be spelt martin with an "i", and I think the current spelling with an "e" was introduced to distance these animals from the martin family of birds.

THE parish council of Kelderdale, that remote and fanciful village in the hills of this region, has been faced with the task of considering the introduction of traffic calming measures at each end of the village main street. While not wanting the imposition of yellow lines because they would hamper the villagers during their domestic routine while also preventing residents parking outside their own houses, the concept of traffic calming measures has been proposed as a means of preventing traffic speeding through Kelderdale.

Coun Muckraker explained to the council that these could comprise raised concrete islands on the left of every road as one enters Kelderdale, plus very prominent road signs to warn drivers of their presence.

"Their purpose," said Coun Muckraker, "is to force incoming traffic to slow down or even stop, and then having stopped or slowed down, it is thought they will resume their journey at a much slower speed, making things much safer for our hens. It is thought these islands will be far better and much more effective than humps in the road or rumble strips on the approaches; they narrow the road to just one lane."

"You mean they make folks slow down by creating twists, bends and narrow lanes?" put in Joshua Cowshed, a council member. "Right," agreed Muckraker. "That's exactly what they do."

"Then why did they take the corners out in the first place? And make that road wider?" asked Cowshed. "Yon high street used to be as narrow as a ginnel, and it twisted and turned like a dog's hind leg, you couldn't go fast if you wanted to, not even in a horse and cart. They straightened it out and widened it to let folks go faster and now you're telling us they want to put all them corners back in and make it narrower to make folks go slower?"

"Well, yes, this is the thinking behind this scheme," admitted Muckraker.

"And then in a dozen years' time, they'll come back and say they want to widen it all again and straighten it out so folks can go faster. I mean," went on Cowshed, "yon high street used to be a Roman road, all long and straight with no corners, then they made it narrow with bends, then they widened it and straightened it, and now they want it all narrow with corners all over again ... that's progress, is it?"

"Modernisation is the word," said Muckraker. "That's not necessarily progress."

"I couldn't agree more," grunted Cowshed