I happened to be passing a nature reserve yesterday at lunchtime. A Nature reserve with a very good cafe (it’s called Vane Farm), so naturally I stopped and had some. To get to the cafe you have to walk through a patch of woodland that is awash with snowdrops just now.

February has been both mild and clement (except for an hour on Saturday, during which time I got soaked) here in the east of Scotland. In fact we have been having those “any-time-of-year” temperatures which could just as easily be somewhat crappy summer weather.

For an archaeologist it has been just amazing. I was working outside, in the shade, in a tee shirt last week, and only trowelling, not doing anything heavy.

Naturally we happy inhabitants of Scotland are just waiting for payment to be demanded. Where are the midges is what I want to know. It’s warm enough, damp enough, so where are they? What impending doom are they instinctively aware of that we humans cannot detect?