This is the first post of the month. Last week I was pre-occupied with Mission: Operation Rabbit. I know pets are meant to, well, just be pets and not take over your life but sometimes … The operation went well and the rabbit appears to be on the road to recovery. I’m maintaining an open verdict on house-rabbits at the moment as he makes his presence felt in much stronger terms than a cat and tends to dominate the action most of the time.
Enough of rabbits. What has the weather been doing here in Lancashire? Mostly frosty crisp days with clear nights and persistent fog filling the valley areas. I think it will change soon though, this morning, for a short time, the light had that strange yellowish quality that is hard to define but often denotes that change is on the way (plus they’ve given snow on the weather) :)
It has been marvellous being on the moors as the sun is rising and the whole scene changes from bluish-grey through salmon pink then achieves a myriad of hues as the sun clears the horizon. There are no endless vistas at the moment, the pollution puts paid to that. An ominous band, rising to 200-300 feet covers all the lower areas across the plain towards the coast and down towards Cheshire.
When it’s windy the pollution is dispersed but during high pressure it simply sits on the lower ground. From a distance it’s brown but when one drives through it the air appears hazy. When it is really bad the level of pollution can rise to 600 feet and you are hard-pressed to get above it.
All around are signs of spring, even the air has a certain smell that’s indefinable, I always think of it as a ‘green’ smell, it has a fresh zingy quality to it. I can’t truly describe it but once smelt I know that the year has moved on and from now on nature will push ahead with new-life as surely as the damp mushroom smell of decay signifies the coming of winter at the end of the year. And just to prove a point, I heard the drumming of a woodpecker as I was walking home and looking upwards I caught sight of a black and white bird flitting through the top branches of a nearby tree.
