Flourishing in the freeze

OVER the past few weeks I’ve listened to a lot of people complaining about the weather.

I’ve grumbled a bit myself, particularly the day I attempted to go fishing from an open boat on Lough Ree and was driven ashore by the bone-chilling cold.

Temperatures have been at least 10 degrees lower than they were in March and early April last year. Uncomfortable but there were compensations. There are two main factors controlling the arrival of spring at these latitudes —- temperature and day-length. In some species of plants, insects, birds and amphibians temperature is the dominant factor, in others it’s the amount of daylight.