Wednesday 28th March - So that's what's wrong

I've been driving around the country lanes all day in brilliant, hot sunshine. The temperature in my car has been around 86F (it's an Italian car - doesn't "do" Centigrade or Celsius or any of that new-fangled stuff).

The skies have been a clear, Summer's blue, the fields are mostly green (full of cows and sheeps, and occasionally, llamas).

But something has felt very weird about the countryside; it has been worrying me all day.

Then I realised what the problem was; all the trees are completely bare of leaves, apart from willows and hawthorns. It is as if a dreadful disease has killed all the oaks and beeches, sycamores and ash trees that normally line the lanes.

Of course! It's only March - still early Spring. Weird.