Can we really have had all this weather in 8 days? Nature is toying with us. I was on the south coast of Spain 27 March, when we had weather service warnings for rough waves and tides and wild winds. It was definitely not high season on the boardwalk!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Two days later in the Swiss Alps it was t-shirt weather and time to watch 40 or so frogs playing in our pond, adding to the piles of spawn. All those little balls will soon rise to the surface, the parents will disappear and in May we will have tadpoles. Meanwhile, neighbouring cats are getting interested in our pond.

The last day of March we finished pruning the fruit trees and made mulch from the cuttings, with the sun shining, wearing light jackets. Skiers in the family enjoyed the snow until noon, when it turned to soup.

And 4 April we had a sudden shift and 40 cm of snow showed up in Crans-Montana, beautiful in early morning light, but heavy and wet. It carried on all day and the top of the frogs’ pond froze (they hide under the mud deep down). Two blackbirds sang back and forth to each other from the tops of two trees. Blueberries kept their buds tightly shut (good!) as the snow fell on them.

A herd of Swiss red deer slipped through the pasture next door, quietly, as dusk fell, wary until they spotted me. They were extinct at one point and were brought back from Austria; today there are 35,000 of them in the country, mostly shy. Did you know the males grow new antlers every year? More on this beautiful animal (Fr)

The lights came on far across the Rhone and up the Val d’Anniviers as darkness fell.

This afternoon it was all gone, less than 24 hours later. Spring again, anyone?

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

•