The jungle comes to Britain

Back in November we had some students from Quebec staying with us for a couple of nights. One morning, one of them returned from a walk to the shop and reported seeing a green parrot fly overhead. I was skeptical until Dan piped up, admitting that he too had seen a parrot or two roaming our neighbourhood. I soon began to see glimpses of these long tailed, bright green parrots high in the trees on my jogs.

Today, on my noontime canal walk, I was startled when I came upon a lovely green parrot, with red beak and a pinkish ring around its neck dangling from a branch over the river Wey not 10 feet from where I stood. He happily posed for my camera (though my camera phone doesn't zoom, so you have to click on the picture to get a better view!) and lazily bounced on his branch, until he and his partner (hiding from view nearby) began to climb and hop from branch to branch higher and higher until finally taking flight, leaving me in awe and late for work.

Such a sight seems so out of place in England, so after scurrying back to my desk I decided to google 'wild parrots uk' and was amazed to find this article acknowledging a rising parrot and parakeet population in the UK and primarily in this area: Wild Parrots Settle in Suburbs

Apparently they are making their way from Asia and finding homes across Europe posing a threat to the smaller native birds. What will this changing climate reveal next?!

Winter in England

I've been working at a temp job for the past couple of weeks and the best part of the job is the proximity to the canals in Weybridge (which is the next town over from us where we are both working at the moment). On my hour lunch breaks, I change into my boots and wander along the canals, enjoying the birds, beauty, and luxurious homes along with the fresh air and much needed exercise after a morning of sitting behind a desk.

However, my daily walk was not possible yesterday as the country was blanketed in a foot of snow. The most England has seen since 1991! The landscape quickly transformed from muddy but quite green to white in a few hours causing chaos everywhere. The city shut down. Seeing snow like this once in a couple decades does not warrant snow tires, ploughs, or shovels. No one was prepared for it. Unaccustomed to winter driving, people slide passed us nervously. It took us twice as long to get to work and fortunately many people stayed home. We were both allowed to leave work a little early and went out to enjoy the snow. Our neighbourhood had been peopled by snowmen. Every corner and building had one. Neither of us had made a snowman since we were children, but as it is such a novelty here that the enthusiasm was contagious and we decided to join in.

Afterwards we treated ourselves to drinks and dinner in front of the fire at our local pub. Click here to see the contrast between yesterday and last week.