IT ought to be all eyes on the weathervane this weekend because, according to an old Worcestershire legend, “if it rains on Good Friday and Easter Day, there’ll be plenty of grass but little good hay”.

Not exactly Shakespeare but then countryfolk in years gone by tended to learn from experience rather than the rather more photogenic vision of Carol Kirkwood on Breakfast TV.

Indeed if it’s a weather steer you’re after, here is another from local folklore - “a mist around Broadway Tower, it’ll rain within the hour”.

Worcestershire, being an eclectic mix of town and country, has been able to hold court with some colourful phrases over the years.

How often do you occasionally hear something today that takes you right back to your childhood?

Words that your grandparents used but you’d not hear repeated now.

Classics like (and this is a woman talking about a man): “There was nothing there, nothing but trousers”.

Or “He seemed like a thing as was put in a cage to be pecked at.”

Mind you, the men were just as observant: “A pig and a woman and a donkey be contrary things and a man can do nothing with um if we don’t let um have their own way.”

These and a few more gems come from an old book of sayings in our vaults which is worth thumbing through as a reminder of the way things were.

Here’s another male’s eye view: “I never knowed but one businesswoman, an’ her husband hanged himself!”, while the female response could have been: “There was a lot in his face as was no good to anybody.”

Some of the old sayings hit the nail right on the head.

For example: “They carries their chins in the air, though the mice be a-running their cupboards with tears in their eyes” (about people who give the pretence of wealth but have run out of money).

Or: “She’d carry a stone for seven years and then throw it at you” (about one who stores up ill-will).

Other pearls of wisdom include: “If you’ve anything to say, keep your mouth shut” and “Every crow thinks his feathers the blackest.”

So if you want to go back to the era of TV series like Downton Abbey, here are a few pointers:

• Allus is: all that remains. “The pot’s pretty nig empty but I’ll gi’ yu allus is”.

• Dither: Tremble – “The wind is that piercin’ I seem’d ter goo straight through ‘um. It made me all uv a dither”.

• Good shutt: Good riddance.

• Hommucks: Feet

• Noggin: Clumsy

• Purgy: Short tempered

• Shog off: Go away

• Shut ‘is knife: Died

• Watty-onded: Left-handed.

Meanwhile, Michael Fish still says there is definitely no hurricane this weekend.

Let’s hope he’s right.