Flower Show

gazania
Originally uploaded by wherethewolvesare.

I saw just 3 minutes of 'Autumnwatch', the other day, this is the BBC's programme charting the progress of autumn. I would have watched the rest but a hungry child waits for no-man, certainly not Bill Oddie (the programme's presenter), so I went and made Nathan's tea instead. Nevertheless, I did hear Bill say that this autumn had come early and had been a long, mild one. This certainly matches with my observations. Back in an earlier post, I mentioned the early onset of the season. This week, the unusual length and mildness of this autumn really struck me. To be more precise 'flowers' struck me, or their presence did.

There isn't huge profusions of flowers, but they are there. I expect to see a few dahlias and the solanum always manages a good show well into November. What about gazania, delphinium, impatiens, red clover and gorse though? All still in flower as we near November's third week. I've never known a year like it. Is it global warming? Is it just a warm autumn, due to chance? Maybe it's down to the protection afforded by the microclimates of towns and villages hereabouts.

I hope it's just part of the wonderful seaonal variation that we get in Britain. The variation and lack of extremes that makes me so glad to live in this temperate little corner of the world. I'll stop there, before I start singing 'Jerusalem'.