I said last week that the temperature had dropped and called the post The Beginning of Winter. This week we've had record temperatures for the time of year. It's been up to about 25°C some days, and this morning I was back out on the balcony in a T-shirt. A few things gave up when the temperature fell last week, and I spent most of the morning clearing them out, but everything that didn't is continuing to flower happily. And as you can see from the photo, the bees are continuing to visit. At the back of the house there's a medlar tree which is now in flower, and this morning it was covered in swarms of bees and the odd butterfly. Most of the butterflies seem to have succumbed to the cold though - I haven't seen any of the little brown ones which were so common up to a few weeks ago.
All very nice, but as I gardened this morning I was wondering what havoc it was liable to play with the environment in general. Turned on the TV to watch the BBC World news over lunch, and found a feature on how climate change in the world as a whole is threatening to turn large areas of Africa to desert. And checking on their schedule for the rest of the day, there's a programme this evening on the melting of the Arctic permafrost and the catastrophe that it's liable to cause because of greenhouse gases being released. A depressing end for an otherwise lovely, sunny Sunday morning...
The medlar tree flowers between November and February
4 comments:
It does all make you look at weather in a different way, doesn't it? It's not just about how the weather will affect our own little gardens anymore. I think too few people even bother to wonder, as you did, "what havoc it was liable to play with the environment in general." I know I think the same way when we have odd weather like that.
Wonderful blog, by the way. I don't even know how I'd tackle the challenge of gardening on a balcony!
How lovely to have a tree bloom in the winter time.
I do wonder about the weather, and overall climatic changes being experienced in so many places. Very thought provoking when the the weather just isn't as it should be.
Glad to hear you're having an Indian summer Sue, they are a bonus. I love the garden quotes particularly the one by Charlesworth it's so true. We are very concerned about climate change in Australia too. They are talking about about our drought as being the worst in a thousand years. How they know about before our country was discovered I don't know. Probably computer modelling I suppose. Have a nice week.
It's lovely to see that our balcony is blooming with lively colors,don't worry too much,damage that we have done to the environment is irreversible,but by growing plants it can be a reversed.
Shyama Varma
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