Weather

Now I know you should not mix weather with climate change but I have started to wonder if we are starting to see something seriously going wrong. It is now mid November when there should have been frosts and rain and yet we have had none. As I write this I can look outside to a blue sky and temperatures well into the teens centigrade. In the garden the trees and plants haven't got a clue what is happening. The roses are still producing blooms as are many of the other plants. Trees, which by now should have shed there leaves still haven't and toady I saw a number of leaf cutting bees buzzing around as through they have come out of hibernation.

Of course to put a little perspective to all this last year was one of the coldest we have had in a while so who knows what is happening to the weather. I just know I have not seen such a strange autumn in my life time. Goodness only knows what this winter will turn out like?

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Getting a bit swampy...

I don't want to sound alarmist but the Hawthorn is coming into bloom.   This flower is known as the 'mayflower' because it flowered in May.  Well, as I write this it is not even mid April and the Hawthorn is blooming which would indicate that the tree thinks that it is, in fact, May.  Or put it another way spring is at least 3 weeks earlier this year.  Now there are a whole series of reasons for this but they all would indicate that we are warming up.  This could be a clear sign of global warming.

I have also noticed that ground is also very dry. This might seem strange given the wet winter that we have had.   However, if this is true it may well be another indicator or how things are changing.  Now from my point of view that is the best way of looking at Global Warming.  Things are changing and that is all you can say.  

Whether, these changes are good or bad is almost impossible to say because it depends on your perspective - you have to remember that not too long ago where the Hawthorn stood there was an ice sheet up to a mile thick.  The world changes it always has done and it always will it is only humans who try to categorize these changes as 'good' or 'bad'  nature doesn't it just adapts.  Unfortunately this means that the ecosystem changes but it survives.   The question is whether the human race is one of the survivors?

Now I am not sure whether this is a Gaian approach to understanding the world or just me rambling on, I suspect the later, but things are changing and we just have to get used to it.   It reminds me of the Chinese curse of living in interesting times.