Nature skips a season
by Matt Shardlow from Environment | The Guardian on (#ZA61)
Stanwick Lakes, Northamptonshire Yellow dangling catkins, which we are used to seeing in February, are opening up
Late December and this landscaped array of flooded gravel pits in the Nene valley is thrumming with people. Not just Karrimor jackets and sensible walking shoe types either: families, big yellow Doc Martens, baby bumps, huge fluffy puppies, luminous cyclists; denizens of all shapes, sizes and colours.
Their quiet and chatty enjoyment of the clement blue skies is interrupted by a huge leaden-clouded trough of low pressure, spanning from southern to northern horizon and sweeping west to east. When the temperature drops and squalls of heavy rain ensue, humanity, myself included, takes refuge in a capacious wooden bird hide overlooking a lake.
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