For years now, and again this year, I wonder at the fact that despite passing the year’s shortest day (21st December) the mornings seem to get darker for longer before dawn. Of course, as in the evenings, change is imperceptibly slow, but to get later until mid January??
Post Brexit agricultural policy, as promised by the Department of the Environment, continues to give hope – this so with the recent announcement by the Minister that future independent farming subsidies will have the aim of encouraging farmers to use their land sustainably and in ways that encourage wildlife diversity. This following-on the commitment re farm animal sentience (s.p.b.).
The World Wildlife Fund is currently encouraging members to contribute photos for Valentine’s Day in February showing changes resulting from climate change (birds nesting earlier and that sort of thing). In fact this year up to today I had not seen a single snowdrop in bud whereas recent years it has been possible to see some before Christmas. I did come across two clumps in bud on Far Ings Road, Barton this afternoon but have seen no sign of buds or even leaves in South Ferriby churchyard as yet although the first crinkled primrose leaves are coming through here. The picture above is of one of many primroses in flower in the churchyard in early March in a past winter. It has been quite a harsh winter so far, the wildlife needing all the help it can get.