Hard Winter a'coming?

[Prudie]

I've noticed my crab apple has far more fruit than usual this year and a holly in my garden has berries coming for the first time ever. Just been for a walk and the hedgerows are laden with berries, the sloes are already blue and it's only early August. Country lore would suggest to me this is a sign of a hard and early winter on the cards. Anyone agree?

[carmalee]

agree with the country lore bit Prudie but I also remember very mild winters following on from an autumn just laden down with fruit and berries - so I suppose we must just wait and see. I also posted at the end of June (I think) that I'd picked blackberries, months early - we have a huge crop of them down here in E. Sussex/Kent.

[Euphemia]

Don't even think about it...........

[MrsGillseldest]

I am still paying off last winters fuel bill.

[rowanwitch]

doesn't tell the future weather just reflects past conditions...saying that I haven't seen as many Rowan berries as there are this year so if we get waxwings again they will be to fly home to scandinavia

[emmie]

Its autumn already i reckon as many of the leaves on the trees are already turning brown, and shedding them, perhaps this is what's wrong, the seasons have shifted. So we get warmer weather april/may and june but by july/august autumn is here.

[Prudie]

I reckon you may be right em about autumn, I've also noticed some trees starting to turn already. Scientfically I'm sure it can all be explained by previous conditions rather than future but you never know. Nature is extremely powerful.

[rowanwitch]

a lot of horse chestnuts are already shedding their leaves but that is apparently due to a disease problem, and the silver birches look like they are starting to turn

[avanalarf]

i've heard that shrimp boats are a'coming

[heathfield]

After the coldest winter in years, I've noticed many plants seem to have benefitted since they have done particularly well. But I've also noticed many which are suffering more from disease than in past years. My clematis has developed a virus and is dying off prematurely, My silver birch has birch rust and has lost half its leaves already, and I've seen some chestnut and sycamore locally that are obviously in distress. As for a cold winter to come, who knows?

[boxtops]

I don't think we can predict any more - the seasons are changing so rapidly. The Kentish apples are being picked and some of the hedgerow blackberries are going over already. When I was a child, our blackberrying weekend was always the first one in September - Harvest Festival being at the end of September now seems somewhat behind the times!