Our Strange, Strange Spring

 Something is wrong this year. It's early May and there trees are still as bare as they were a month ago. It's cold and the ground is soggy and waterlogged. Everything looks bleak and brown - just a few trout lilies braving the elements in the woods.

Normally, by this time, we would have been planning to put the boat in the water. But they're only just removing the ice boom from outside Buffalo harbour - and when that happens the ice from Lake Erie flows into the marina. No boating there for a while. We haven't got enough lifeboats.  Well that's global warming for you.
  But I refuse to be defeated. Through the rain, you can glimpse our spring bulbs and pansies doing their best. .