WHILE leaden skies, cool winds and forecast temperatures stuck stubbornly in the low teens belie the fact, spring approaches. 

For the more observant, there are signs; the late-winter flowering of our national floral emblem and its many relatives, the yellow dust filtering down from the numerous pines on the Parklands course, the swelling of buds on deciduous species, the ready stare from a lone magpie perched on a tree at fairway’s edge that has the meaning, ‘just you wait’.