We’ve had another mild, sunny day in Aberdeenshire with temperatures nudging 12C so I’ve been working outside in my boilersuit, sans jacket, scarf and thermal underwear.
If that wasn’t strange enough - it is February and this in north-east Scotland - the raspberries, gooseberries, tayberries and blackcurrants are all in bud, the pussy willow in the front garden is in bud, and the grass is starting to grow.
And to top all that, when I was in the workshop this morning a pair of swallows flew in and started looking for a nesting site among the rafters!
We already have a couple of sparrows in the generator room, while clouds of midges can be seen in some of the wetter, sunlit ditches along the roads.
By way of contrast, the Other Half was talking to a lady in her 60s who grew up on a farm up here.
The lady was very perturbed by the weather, saying that as a child she would walk to school in February through snow cuttings, carved by a snowplough, that were so deep she couldn’t see over the sides.
Our neighbours, whose family have been here for generations, are equally perturbed and describe how winter snowfalls were frequently in excess of six feet deep and occasionally drifted over the roofs of the croft.
But, many of the townsfolk in Insch are oblivious to the implications of the topsy-turvy seasons. They think the warm conditions are brilliant and long may the warm winters continue.
Sigh. I really do wonder sometimes.
I too have tried to explain why spring coming so early is not the best thing, all I have been met with is ‘ah well we have plenty of rain’. Yes we have had plenty of rain, torrential rain that has come down so heavy it has not had a chance to soak the ground. But alas they fail to understand this and just think I am bonkers
Swallows? You are kidding me?
I can’t believe you saw swallows. Loads of out fruts bushes are in bud and I saw bees today and a wood pigeon sitting on a nest.
I’m surprised to find people who I would normally think of as uninterested in anything to be quite concerned also.
Believe me or not, but they’re here. I think it’s the same pair that nested on the top shelf of my tool rack last year and raised four young. They didn’t mind my coming and going, nor my working but became very agitated when anyone else went in the workshop.
They’re small, with that distinctive wing shape, blue-black backs, creamy white underparts, red throats and long, forked tails. And they’re extremely agile.
If that’s not a swallow, then what is it? They arrived in the last week of February last year and the first week of March in 2005. According to the RSPB, swallows are normally found in the UK from March until October.
Unfortunately, my camera is not up to taking a photo of them.
Oh, and on the North East Environmentally-friendly Peoples Site the weather is described as “lovely”. No, it’s not. It’s wrong, wrong, wrong.
You talk of weather temp being as high as 12 deg. Stoney. Well down under in hot summer weather we are down to 12 deg at night which is very odd for this time of the year. Normally we are having hot,sweaty nights which makes sleeping rather difficult.
Mid summer temps are usually a constant in the 30’s plus, however this year there are some wide fluctuations. From the low 40’s down to the lower 20’s during the day.
It is very worrying, the alarming rate with which things are changing year on year. I would expect these changes to take place over decades. However this is the first year inwhich urban townies are noticing the difference, that in itself must be a good thing.
Don’t forget that we’re in the middle of an ENSO (El Nino Southern Oscillation) event at the moment, which peaked about ten days ago. On the basis of the standard three week delay, we should expect a band of very wet weather in about a week and a half followed by a return to “seasonal averages” (whatever they used to be). So you should get some snow then, Stoney.
I’m not knocking global warming at all, just pointing out we’ve got ENSO on top of it at the moment.