EVERYTHING has its season and for many years this has been a signing-off time in the countryside and the D&S Times office - the signing-off from the show season with the Nidderdale society's event at Pateley Bridge.

This year, for reasons which do not need rehearsing here, the countryside has been silenced in the culling fields and the pages of this newspaper bereft of reports and pictures of fine, locally bred livestock, traditional crafts and well-grown produce.

Not only the livestock shows have been lost to us, for the epidemic took in its swathe other events held in the countryside - Egton gooseberry show and Teesdale heritage exhibition were late summer casualties.

Earlier, the brave attempt of the Yorkshire agricultural society to hold a flag-waving event in place of the Great Yorkshire Show fell in the face of the onslaught from the Settle area just when there was the smallest glimmer of hope on the horizon.

But that horizon kept on receding and the last few weeks have seen hopes dashed again as foot-and-mouth returned to Northumberland and then slid back into Durham and last week was confirmed at Tan Hill. Some things in the countryside will never be the same again - how unheralded do the pages of history turn - but life will go forward if only because there is no other way.

The fabric is rent, but life, and death, have a way of weaving that absorbs the tears and faults. Part of the pattern of the rural fabric is the show season, and this note is to encourage those bands of volunteers who enable the shows to be staged to have courage.

The courage to go forward next year for the sake of all of us; to put on those shows which are the shop window of the countryside and the delight of all who care for country ways.

This epidemic has proved itself a back-stabber and there is no way of knowing at present if it will be possible to have agricultural events next year.

Certainly, there will be painful gaps and there will be spectators and exhibitors alike unable for a while to face the new normality. But a new fabric will be woven. Stalwarts and newcomers will be needed to bring together the strands.

Be there - we will.

Off-road vehicle

SPECTATOR had a close encounter with a miniature roadsweeper on his stroll to work this week in Darlington.

Turning a corner, there it was just in front, trundling along the pavement, its little brushes extending and retracting as it collected the detritus of modern life.

Then it came to a back lane. Bumping down the kerb it waited, puzzled, before zooming off on to the road and missing out a chunk of pavement.

After the next road junction, it was back on the pavement and I gradually caught it up. It slowed under some overhanging bushes, allowing Spectator to overtake, then raced off down the road disappearing into the distance.

Picking my way through the discarded pizzas and windblown leaflets along the rest of the street, I thought: "What was the point of all that?"

Sign of the times

NO-ONE has plain and simple signs any more. The jargon word is "signage" and it goes a long way beyond giving the company's name and pointing to the fire escapes.

It must not be negative. "Thank you for not smoking" replaces the curt "No smoking" although it doesn't contain the option implied in its wording.

"Thank you for shopping at Bloggs's" faces us as we leave the store; there isn't a door marked "Sorry you can't find what you want" and all we need to be told anyway is "EXIT".

The ultimate in sensitively correct signage caught the eye of a Darlingtonian this week, underlining his already frail faith in the common sense of our public authorities.

"Welcome to the youth court," it said.