Friday 30 May 2014

Similarities

In meteorological terms, tomorrow is the last day of Spring.  The statistics being trailed are all about it being the third warmest spring on record - which suggests that it has been extraordinary. But having only recently mused on the contrasts in both weather and its affect on artistic interpretations of Norfolk, personal experience is that here 2014 has been similar to 2013.

Having just had two days of unrelenting cloud and rain, the sun is out again - but looking back to this time last year I was then writing about cold, wind and rain on Overy Bank just as I could have done this week. In fact May has been as wet as January with much of that falling in the last couple of weeks. 

Talking to one of Norfolk's better known photographers - who shares my love of all things Overy - he commented how remarkably similar the light has been. One of his best known images of a storm front over the Boathouse taken this time last year was almost replicated this year.

Along the bank, the biggest difference is not the weather but the vegetation, with the Alexanders noticeably bigger and bolder. Whether this is down to warmer temperatures or a different pattern of rainfall we shall never know. It could of course be down to the fertilising effect of the surge, or maybe a different maintenance regime.  Whatever it is that the statistics suggest my guess is that most of us feel its been pretty unremarkable. A typical Norfolk Spring in fact, followed no doubt by a typical Norfolk Summer.

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