Spring is late

Spring is rather late in southern England this year. For the past ten years -- ever since I started beekeeping -- it's been early, but it's obviously having a lie-in. Colony development is well behind, but I bet the flowers and the bees will catch up in rapid time and swarming season is probably not as far away as it seems.

Here's a photo taken of daffodils in my garden today and snow on a blooming daffodil last year. The photos were taken exactly 13 months apart. So, by that reckoning the spring is at least four weeks behind last year. Yes, they always did say global warming's effects would be unpredictable in the shorter cycles.


No bloom on 22 March 2006.



The same clump of daffodils in bloom, albeit with snow headgear, on 22 February 2005.