I'm John Batchelor. I welcome my good colleague Simon Constable in Paradise in the South of France, in wartime.

We will address the commodities which are out of control soon enough.

But we begin with the good news of spring here in New England and spring well ahead of me in the south of France.

Simon, a very good day to you.

I report that we had a foot of snow on the ground until about 72 hours ago.

And then on two back-to-back days of 60-degree temperature, the snow disappeared. We were alive again with a forest and a yard of grass.

And the Charlie and Sailor

the spring of spaniels were out running around

the songbirds return

the pollen's out there

the daffodils are all springing through

and I now have two very happy

muddy dogs to deal with

every time they come in from the fields

how goes it with you, Simon?

Well, we're having some interesting weather.

It is warmed up so that when I go out for a walk with the dogs,

it is warm enough to wear short trousers, which is very nice.

We're a big, big sweater, jumper on top to keep me warm.

But that works.

So this morning we had 41 Fahrenheit was the low temperature, and it went up to 54, which is a little bit behind where you are.

And we also had some light rain.

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