Kerre and her Irishman face off

Spring has come early this year. I know this because of the trees on our street. When they are in leaf, the branches form a natural canopy that stretches from one end of the street to the other. This time last year, I was hoping that the leaves would come out in time for my daughter’s wedding.

The canopy would have made a lovely backdrop in the photos, but they refused to come to the party. It was nearly the end of October before the leaves unfurled. This year they’re lush, green and gorgeous, and I have forgiven them for their late arrival a year ago.

The first day that really feels like spring is a wonderful day. Everything seems possible. The Weekly’s spring cleaning booklet that arrived last week inspired me to clean out my cupboards and I attacked the cabana by the pool. We put the pool into the backyard years ago, after I’d filmed a couple of series of Ready Steady Cook.

It would have been far more sensible to use the extra money to pay off some of the mortgage, but I’d grown up with pools and the old Skyline garage occupying the backyard was an elephant. The driveway was too narrow to allow cars to actually park in the garage and the previous house owners had used it as a sleepout for members of the family. It had to go.

The Irishman was resistant. “I like that shed,” he said. “But you don’t do anything in it,” I argued. “It’s not like you have a hobby. You don’t do up vintage cars or turn wood.”

“I just like being in it,” he said. “It’s far from swimming pools I was reared.” I’m sure that’s quite true. Whenever we’ve visited Derry and gone round calling on his family and friends, I haven’t once seen a swimming pool in a backyard. But I pointed out to him that he’d moved away from Derry precisely so he could have a vastly different life. So the shed went and the pool was installed.

I compromised a bit by having a wee shed built where my Irishman could go. He wasn’t particularly grateful. “There’s not enough room to swing a cat in here,” he grumbled when he saw it. I pointed out that he hadn’t done an awful lot of cat swinging in the previous shed and once he’d had his first swim, he reluctantly conceded that the pool was a good idea.

The view from the cabana by the pool looks out onto the trees on the street and you could be miles away from the city with all the green foliage. I had a friend coming round that Sunday and as it was such a gorgeous day, it was time to open up the cabana and get it ready for summer.

I brushed up all the leaves, plumped up the cushions on the chairs and put a couple of bottles of rosé in the fridge. I refreshed the magazines and dusted down all the surfaces. My friend arrived and we took up lounging positions, her with a cup of tea, me with a glass of summer wine.

It was a lovely way to spend a sunny Sunday afternoon – and fingers crossed this summer will be a whole lot better than it was last year.