Warming up

Now, I know the picture looks fairly autumnal and about right for this time of year, but heck, it's nearly the end of November and there are still leaves on the trees. What's more, it's still warm enough for me to be wearing my summer mac and the days when I can see my breath in the morning have been few and far between.

To summarise, it's unseasonably warm for the time of year!! Now, don't get me wrong. Warmer weather is not necessarily a curse. It's nice not to have to bundle up in umpteen layers just to poke your nose outside the front door. It's good that I don't have to put extra duvets on the bed at night just to keep me warm (and that's even with a hot water bottle!). It's great that I haven't had to shovel the snow off my steps yet.

But, at the same time, it is a worry. There are reports that midges are still out and about (and biting) in Scotland. Flowers are flowering out of season. Nature is out of balance. More worryingly, weather patterns across the world are out of whack - droughts, floods, monsoons, storms are happening with greater frequency, and all with devastating effect. And it's not all coincidental that our greenhouse gas emissions are continuing to rise.

To me that's a far more worrying piece of news than whether or not some journalist hacked a celebrity's mobile phone, but I guess it's not as exciting for the headline makers. I really do wonder when we're all finally going to wake up and smell the coffee, and realise that we seriously need to rethink our way of life. It doesn't necessarily need to be for the worse (as we see it), and who knows we might just find that we like a less consumerist, more equal, less hectic, more balanced lifestyle.