First day of spring

It's the spring equinox today. Daylight hours and darkness are about equal. It's half way to the summer solstice. The reality this year however is that spring came early. Winter has been mild. Snow has been virtually non-existent but there was plenty of rain. I am in London for a few days and the capital, being nearly 500km to the south of us, is always a bit ahead of us in terms of the growing season. It is no different this time. I took a walk in Crystal Palace Park and found that the blackthorn was already in flower. Hopefully that means lots of sloes in the autumn.



The hawthorn is in leaf (see above) and the cherry is in blossom. This must surely be breaking records.

Go back a year however and we were into a mini ice age. Then we were experiencing record cold temperatures for the time of year. I prefer what we are getting now.