Still Learning.

As it was still crisp, calm and sunny today, I went for a walk around the local lanes. Most of them were still covered with snow and ice, but I saw that there were several patches of clear surface here and there. I decided to stop and work out why. It didn’t take long.

I saw that all the clear patches were adjacent to hedgerow trees, and that the length of the patches accorded with how many trees there were. Simple. I already knew that tree trunks absorb sunlight and then give off the heat overnight. That, apparently, is why birds roost close to them. Obviously, therefore, the heat coming off the tree was sufficient to clear the road in the near vicinity.

Given how many years I’ve spent living in the countryside, you’d have thought I would have worked out that simple fact a long time ago, wouldn’t you? Dumb, I admit, but at least it’s good to learn something eventually.