On Brits and the Weather.

Foreign visitors to the UK often remark on how obsessed the British are with regard to talking about the weather. We do, incessantly, and it’s probably because the islands of Britain and Ireland are renowned for the capricious nature of the climate. Getting hail and sleet one day, and calm, warm, sunny weather the next – as a matter of course – naturally makes for a never-ending source of conversation. The weather is one of our primary interests in life and we don’t even realise we’re doing it. And now that the climate is changing world-wide and the jet stream has become wavy, I expect we’ll do it even more in the future.

What’s interesting me is the effect this is having on the flora. This year we had a mild March followed by a very dry but cold April, and I’ve noticed that certain plants have been poor and late, while others have been early and proliferated. The blossom on my apple tree, for example, is 2-3 weeks later than usual, and the flowers are small and ragged. The bluebells and blackthorn, on the other hand, started to bloom earlier than usual and have given a magnificent display. (I’ve also noticed that more of the bluebells are turning pink, so what should we call them? Pink bluebells or pinkbells?)

It would be interesting to see how this pans out over the next twenty or thirty years, but I doubt I shall be able to do so because there’s no history of longevity in my male ancestry. Nevertheless, it is pleasing to see the first signs of a copious flowering of the hawthorn blossom this year. There’s a good chance that the world will, indeed, be white with May, even if it waits until June to happen.