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ACROSS

1 . Monotonous 4 . Different 7 . Sultan ’ s wife 8 . Restraining cord 9 . Straighten 12 . Inflame

15 . One who solicits votes

17 . Sliced very thinly 18 . Duck ’ s call 21 . Finest 22 . Oral sense 23 . Of earthquakes

DOWN

1 . Appeals board 2 . Accustomed 3 . Coal vein 4 . Australian gemstone 5 . Announces 6 . Wealthy 10 . Ledger entry 11 . Satirical routines 13 . Plague 14 . Chafes 16 . Stops momentarily 18 . Give up 19 . Leg joint 20 . Flows away

22 23

1 . Spring can start at different times . On the astronomical calendar the first day of spring is 20 March . For meteorologists spring starts on 1 March and runs until 31 May

2 . Many people say you ’ re more likely to see snow around Easter time than at Christmas - snow or sleet falls on average 3.9 days in December , compared to 4.2 days in March / April

3 . The first day of spring , the vernal equinox , has 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness

4 . The warmest spring on record was 2011 with an average daytime temperature of 9.2 ° C

5 . The coldest spring was the spring of 1962 , with an average daytime maximum of 5.8 ° C

6 . The wettest spring was in 1947 with 331.7 mm of rainfall 7 . The average mean temperature for spring is 7.7 ° C .

8 . Sense of smell can be more acute in spring as there is usually more moisture in the air

9 . Spring is often associated with the start of the pollen season . In actual fact some pollen types can release as early as January

10 . The sunniest spring was in 1948 , in which a total of 558 sunshine hours were recorded

11 . Spring fever is not just a saying . Experts say the body ’ s makeup changes due to different diets , hormone production and temperature

12 . The first spring flowers are typically daffodils , dandelions , lilies , tulips , iris and lilacs to name a few

13 . Benjamin Franklin first proposed Daylight Saving Time in 1784

14 . The reason there is more daylight during the spring is the earth ’ s axis tilts toward the sun at this time of year

15 . If you stand on the equator today , you would see the sun pass directly overhead . It only happens twice a year in spring time and autumn

16 . One long-term study found that , at least in the Colorado Rocky Mountain region , spring begins , on average , about three weeks earlier than it did in the 1970s

17 . In the Southern Hemisphere , springtime lasts from August until November

18 . Children actually grow faster in the spring than during other times of the year

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