Mm Links February 2014 Week 3
Good morning, MM Linkers – this is “The Cat’s Mother” offering you my third selection of links for your enjoyment.
This week sees us in mid-February, which is half-term for a lot of youngsters. Some years ago we used to own a timeshare week in February on the Costa del Sol – it was lovely to get away from the cold dreariness in the UK, to some warm sun, and the sight of Southern Spain waking up for the forthcoming tourist season. We still look at the photographs of the lovely empty beach, and the snow-capped ranges of the Sierra Nevada, where other more energetic holidaymakers were ski-ing.
This past week has also brought the start of the much-heralded Winter Olympics, with more ski-ing, and the world’s athletes sliding about with talent on a range of slippery surfaces. Not my scene at all, but it’s interesting to watch on the television – especially some of the newer sports which are unfamiliar to me.
Here, there is as yet no sign of snow in the South of England – in past years, it’s been and gone by now, so I hope that the relentless rain might be keeping it away. We have heard that the north of Scotland is very snowy, with the ski resorts having to dig themselves out, in some instances.
Those of us who are interested in the ospreys are keenly watching the Loch of the Lowes and blogs from other osprey sanctuaries, it’s early days yet but we are agog to see if the Lady manages to make it back to the UK for another record-breaking year. Sadly, the chick from 2013 has gone off radar, but we know that mortality in migrating young birds can be high. The 2012 chick from another Scottish site is still thriving and doing well on the African coast. Here, our local wild birds appear to be pairing up, although I would have thought it’s too wet as yet for nest-building – but the buds are appearing on some of our shrubs, so Mother Nature believes that better times are on their way!