Personal Blogs

Christmas Day 2008 at Hilton Towers was warm, as indeed was most of autumn and winter that year. I know this because in the middle of the overcrowded Christmas lunch dining table was a small vase in which two full blown daffodils were quietly wondering how on earth they'd suddenly got there. Well, they got there because I'd picked them, in full bloom, only moments prior from a patch in the garden where they generally put in an appearence in early spring. So mild had been the autumn and winter season that the daffs had bloomed three months early.

This year, as I write, the same patch of daffs is only now showing a few tightly wrapped flower heads which still seem to be some way off being inclined to poke their heads out. This is probably how it should be.

Another thing I've noticed is that we've had a lot of rain. A lot of rain. So much rain in fact, that parts of our drive are now green with a thin skin of algae or moss or lichen or seaweed - whatever it is, it's green. It's also the first time I ever seen it green. Similarly, the moss growing on the roof tiles has now taken on the appearence of vivid green hairy clods, clustering together for warmth like mutant miniature legless sheep that seem to have multiplied exponentially over winter to the point of population explosion. Makes me wonder what they're eating.

And my sage has rotted in a ground that is normally so free draining that in dry spell the wind whips up the soil like mini dust-devils.

I have to say, right now I fancy a bit of this climate warming stuff.