Each year spring comes rolling round again. Low clouds and fog, burning off mid-morning to hazy sun. Clear with a few wispy high clouds by afternoon.

Though each year it seems to start sooner, and the high temperatures a bit warmer and lingering on into the winter months a few more days. Over the 25 years I've lived in this house (on and off), I've had to change the flowers and plants around the outside more and more to drought-tolerant, heat-tolerant varieties.

I think the plants tell the tale more eloquently than anything I could say, more vividly than any scientific report. The tender plants I started with in 1987 gradually died out, burned by the sun and heat, even when watered faithfully.

I wonder what the birds think about all this? Certainly our politicians in their air conditioned offices and air conditioned cars don't seem to pay it much mind.