Crabby

Just when we were relaxing and congratulating each other that spring had sprung, the weather has decided to put us in our place. As I drove home from choir last night it was 4°C outside, and my phone was delivering snow warnings, and although it didn't actually snow today it has been vile: wet, windy, and bitterly cold. Definitely a day for staying inside - which is what I mainly did, except when conscience propelled me out to deliver some food to the squirrels birds.

Having done my duty I went and fetched the macro, and spent a while chasing after the blossom on the weeping pear and crab apple trees as the branches were whipped back and forth by the gusty wind. Luckily I don't think that any of the neighbours were mad enough to be out in their gardens at the same time as me, because the language I was using was robustly Anglo-Saxon. Eventually there was a momentary lull, and I managed to capture some shots that I didn't need to pretend involved intentional camera movement; this is the very pretty blossom of our crab apple tree, almost glowing in the gloom.

This evening I've glanced back at my journal from this time last year, and have been quite surprised to see that we had the same roller-coaster of weather then too. In my head, last year was roastingly hot and dry - which it was, for a few weeks through June and July, but I've now been reminded that the bug season got off to much the same stressful beginning as it has this spring. Consulting that record has helped me to put this wintry spell into perspective.