Spring

This really has been a cold spring in England. We have our first blue geraniums out in the garden, the pink ones have been out for a couple of days. We have blue tits and their fledgelings in our nesting box, the lilac is well advanced, small Bramly apples have formed on the trees; but it has been the wettest May since 1983 and one of the coldest. Last year we had a week in May when the temperature touched 80 degrees. This year it has been mainly in the fifties.

Everything is very green. The trees are in full leaf and growing quickly. The oil seed rape is glowing luminous yellow in the fields. We certainly have bright and sunny days; but a North wind is blowing.

I wonder if Nature is confused by this weather? The vigorous growth of vegetation seems like an overreaction. The grass needs cutting twice a week. Plants we had forgotten about are growing stronger than we ever remember them. The Christmas Cactus that we moved into the greenhouse is flowering six months early.

I've put on a thick pullover and gone back to thick woolly socks. If Nature isn't confused, I certainly am.