Having spent the last ten days basking in bright sunshine and temperatures well into the 20'sC as I travelled around Spain looking at farming, the snow and frost that have covered Norfolk for the last few days was something of a shock to the system.
In Spain the autumn sown bearded wheat was already coming into ear and sugar beet leaves were meeting across the rows as we hope they do in late June in this country. Back home, I had hoped all our sugar beet would have been drilled by the time I returned but not a wheel has turned.
To be honest sugar beet seeds, which like warmth to encourage them to germinate, would not have enjoyed current conditions and the 40% of the UK's national crop that was drilled before the weather turned nasty won't have developed much even though they were drilled earlier than normal. The same is almost as true of spring barley, although both crops should grow away once we get a bit of sun.
Is this global warming or just climate confusion? After a balmy winter we should have been able to walk around in shirtsleeves by now. Someone up there has got his seasons mixed up.