March brings blossom and breezes

The spell of bright, sunny weather that has brought the blossom out has changed today and the wind is whistling in the trees . This sudden change has reminded me of a poem that is useful when teaching English to learn the difference between weather  and whether.

The magnolia and wild cherry, forsythia and japonica are joining the hawthorn in the hedgerows to brighten up the landscape before the wind comes along and blows it all off so the green leaves can take over as a background to the  beautifull June flowers.

Whether the weather be fine

Or whether the weather be not,

Whether the weather be cold

Or whether the weather be hot 

We'll weather the weather

Whatever the weather,

Whether we like it or not.

Here is a lovely poem by Robert Browning who loved Britain and Italy.

"Hark!" Where my blossoming pear 

Tree in the hedge

Leans to the field and scatters on the clover

Blossoms and dewdrops at the bent spray's edge

That's the wise thrush,he sings

His song twice over

Lest you should think he never

Could recapture

That first, fine, careless rapture

R . Browning