Steve is enjoying a well-earned break visiting family in California so I’ve been tempted to give up my Friday trip to the allotment and Pilates for Seniors class today to curate (posh name for edit) the newsletter for a couple of weeks.

Having applied some 3-in-1 to the keyboard I suppose that given the date, anything written here should be taken with a pinch of salt. Was it ever thus?

The ebbs of flows of the industry have thrown up some startling stories in the first three months. Mass shooting at a mower factory, devastating fire at an Essex dealership, Lely splitting ag and turfcare, a future for Kioti after the sad, end of the road for Rustons, and Ron Miller going to the ‘dark side’ (a dealership).  BTME, LAMMA and the Doe Show have come and gone, whilst I’ll gloss over my 'performance' at BAGMA’s curling at Stirling in February (less Torvill and Dean, more Mr Bean on Ice)

The first quarter is the usual prelude to the traditional season’s opening at Easter. Forget the calendar, late March or mid-April, the press and pundits, advertisers and marketeers promote the long weekend as the traditional start of the ‘season’.

This year proved to be a microcosm of our unpredictable calling in life. Melbourne is often said to have ‘four seasons in a day’, and although we are talking about four days you can excuse dealers from wondering which machines to put on show.

Good Friday (at least at my daughter’s house in Surrey) was glorious. A family gathering with lunch in the garden and grandchildren shaking off Winter with a boisterous runabout in the garden. Mowers hummed across the fences.

Dull and dismal Saturday, cold and blustery rain showers on Easter Sunday accompanied by warnings about a temperamental siren named Storm Katie (sounds more like an X-Factor contestant) spoiling the fun on Easter Monday. For once the warnings were justified, 100mph winds ripped up trees – and all of a sudden dealers (those that were open over the weekend that is) were frantically pushing mowers to the back of the showroom and digging out as many chainsaws as they could they their hands on.

Of course it wasn’t entirely like that, but the Easter weekend did demonstrate once again that the strength of the specialist dealer lies in thinking on their feet, being nimble and adapting at a moments notice – in a way that bigger retailers can never hope to match.

It’s nice to think that some things never change.