Spring arrives in the UK somewhat early...

In the last week of January I picked up a bumble bee that had flown into the kitchen because we had the doors and windows open and a friend of ours found two Ladybirds on his window ledge... this is the UK in January, mid-winter!

Despite wintry blizzards across northern England and the Midlands, January was much warmer than normal. The Met Office said this January's UK average temperature was 5.3degrees Celsius (41.54 Fahrenheit) -- almost 2 degrees warmer than the 30-year January average of 3.4 Celsius (38.12F).

Just before Christmas, nest-building rooks were hard at work in the southwest, Oxfordshire and Surrey. Frogspawn was spotted on Christmas Eve in Penzance, Cornwall and tadpoles a month later in neighbouring Devon. Our farmer friend could not put his horse out to graze in December because the new growth of grass was too rich and now, in our garden, Les and Lucy the two ringed doves that have 'adopted' us, have been eyeing each other up with an interest not usually seen until late March!

"Our notion of what spring means and what happens in spring is changing. Nature is beginning to respond to a warmer climate, and We believe global warming is the biggest potential threat to native woodland," said Dr Kate Lewthwaite, the Woodland Trust's Nature Calendar Manager. As if to confirm this changed notion as I walked out of Church last week, a member of the congregation sniffed the air and said "I do love spring, it's my favourite time of year."

Mankind's effect on creation through Global Warming, (I much prefer the more accurate description 'Climate Chaos') is as real as mankinds effect by Genetic Modification on God's gift of the "Seed bearing plants" given to us in Genesis 1:29.

Throughout the world the seasons of the year have been turned into a chaotic jumble, but God's creation depends on the order that is evident throughout Genesis. For example in spring the length of the days govern the time when the Swallows arrive in the UK from Africa, but when they arrive, the insects they need to feed on have already flown and are into their breeding cycle as their life cycles are governed by the warmer days, so resulting in less Swallows and more insects. It seems that in the UK we no longer have 'seasons,' we just have 'weather'.

We are told in Genesis that we are to "Rule" over creation, but Jesus showed us through His example how we should realise that duty of rulership and that example has been largely ignored.