Last winter in the Alps

This is a photo taken of the Giro d'Italia from the live TV coverage on RAI. This race is climbing the steep valley to the Passo di Manghen in the Dolomites. Last winter a ferocious gale swept through these valleys and brought down millions of mature pine trees. This is just some of the devastation (see the cyclists on the road for scale). See also the extra.

It was an exciting stage and I watched most of it. I'd done some light work in the garden and shopping beforehand and felt wiped out.

The Giro has had to endure the terrible weather, one stage being rerouted because of snow, ice and avalanches.

So now we are in June - JUNE - and there is so much that has not been  planted and what is planted sits there sullenly. Even in the greenhouse seeds will simply not germinate.

Still the flu is slowly getting better. But I just feel so angry and yet there is nothing I can do but keep going, replant, hoe, rotovate anew, cut grass and curse t global weather systems and climate change and the freak warm weather melting Alaska and baking Siberia.

It is a taste of things to come. A portent. An omen.