another cold spell in May. The weather doesn’t really turn until after the Gab o’ May, the last snow storm that sweeps across the hills in the middle of May killing newborn lambs, nesting birds and the first spring flowers; a Calvinistic reminder that we shouldn’t relax until the end of May (Sunday Herald 28 March 1999) And . . . here in North-East Scotland we are well aware of the “Gab o’ May”, when snow showers are to be expected around May 8 (Times 23 May 2003).