Early for Aphids?

The first sunny day in Loughor for quite some time! So a 2-spot ladybird (Adalia bipunctata) emerged to warm itself.

Seeing the Changes 629

In Penclacwydd, Hazel (Corylus avellana) was revealing both male and female (small red) flowers.

Seeing the Changes 628

Lilac ivy-leaved speedwell (Veronica hederifolia) was in flower in Loughor.

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The weather doesn't seem to do much for the Spring flowers of Loughor (except to leave them a little wind-blown). In the garden, Primrose (Primula vulgaris) and Snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis) were in bloom. The alien Mahonia was also in flower.

A Lack of Maturity

The news that the UK Environmental Secretary is prepared to allow ancient woodlands to be hacked down to provide building plots for housing, so long as 100 trees are planted by the developers in other offset areas is a bit disengenuous (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25599249 ). Are we talking about social or high-end housing? What species of trees would be used? Where would the offsets be planted? What would happen to the animal and fungal species in the destroyed area? The point is simply that you would not (even with the passage of considerable time) be replacing like with like. There is so little ancient woodland in this country that I think he needs to think a little more carefully.

Washout

The wild weather has washed the small, wooden bridges on the cycle path at Bynea away. It's small beer but does illustrate the destructive power of the wind and waves.

Dangerous Clarity?

A study by climate change modellers from South Australia (http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=fewer-clouds-could-mean-greater-global-warming ) suggests that failures to consider reductions in cloud cover that would normally reflect a percentage of solar energy the Earth receives back into space have resulted in a marked underestimation of the likely rate of global warming. Their models predict that, rather than the increase, by 2100, being limited to a dangerous but containable 2 degrees Centigrade, the average rise will be a catastrophic 4 degrees. That's the kind of clarity that makes me nervous.