Nature Notes

[poliphilo]

In Moscow it's 30 degrees below and they're talking about "Russia's new ice age," but this hasn't stopped people celebrating the feast of the Epiphany by cutting holes in the river ice and taking a dip to wash away their sins.

Here we've had a run of warm, misty days. I was dragging the wheelie bin in off the street and I saw that the daffodils and crocus were beginning to push their noses out in our neighbour's front yard.

Comments

[zoe-1418.livejournal.com]

It's been pretty warm here, too. Our chickens are having a great time scratching in the dirt. We thought we could wait until spring to fence off our perennial gardens, but they may force us to act sooner... unless we get another pile of snow soon!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Apparently colder weather is going to blow in over the weekend.

[seaslug-of-doom.livejournal.com]

The fact that the daffodils and crocus have noses at all is probably why they smell so good.

Oh I just kill me.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Nice one....:)

But they do look a bit like little snubby noses when they're starting to come through.

[dadi.livejournal.com]

I am really wondering about the weather these days. In Italy it has been FREEZING for weeks now, we are steadily below 0, even around -10 some days. And in the north, temperatures are moderate. In Brussels, I was walking around without the coat. Strange.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Who knows if these things are blips or signs of real deep-seated change.

Today a bottle-nosed whale has swum up the Thames as far as the Houses of Parliament, something that has never happened before. Our ancestors would have spoken of such things as omens.