Times of the signs
Grandad January 17th, 2011
Winter is losing its grip.
I have noticed already that the days are getting longer. Or maybe the nights are getting shorter? I’m not sure which and I hope the distinction isn’t important.
The day to day change isn’t noticeable. It’s a bit like that spot of rust on the car – it never seems to change until one day you realise that the door has fallen off. The changing time is a bit like that. You don’t suddenly wake up to full sunlight where the previous day it was dark. Oh no. It’s too sneaky for that. It’s only when you realise that you are switching the lights on at five instead of half four that you realise that things are changing.
There are a few little milestones that we haven’t reached just yet. The snowdrops are up but aren’t exactly a solid bed of little white flowers yet. The frogs won’t have their massive orgy in the pond for another four weeks or so, but we are getting there. Slowly but surely winter has had its day.
Of course winter can be fucking sneaky, and it wouldn’t surprise me if we didn’t have another significant fall of Global Warming in the next few weeks, but it will be a last gasp attempt by winter to deny the inevitable.
The birds have changed their tune too. For the last couple of months there hasn’t been much in the way of birdsong, but that has changed. Quite a few of them are getting randy already and are shouting their heads off from the treetops. It will soon be time to comb Sandy and wodge the combings into the bushes for the nest-builders to fight over.
I think I’ll leave the sunbeds in the shed for another few weeks though.
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