One of the delights about running a blog for an extended period of time, is that you can then look at what happened this time last year and note any seasonal variations. For instance: despite the weather being nowhere near as good as it was in March 2015, the seafront carousel is being assembled several days earlier. This is probably because we are having an early Easter this year, and the carousel boys will need to make sure everything works before the approaching holiday weekend.

To be honest though, observations like these are rather obvious. Much more interesting are the dates of this year’s mattress dumping season. For months it has been quiet on the abandoned bedding front but, as noted before (Weds 28th Jan 2015) as soon as the sun comes out properly, so do all the mattresses! Today’s example has not been the first I’ve seen on the streets; they’ve been appearing for a few weeks now (something I perhaps should have recorded, but I’d rather felt I’d ‘done’ that last year). However, while this means this seasonal event is running about a month late in purely calendar terms, it confirms that the phenomenon is directly linked to the amount of direct sunlight present on a number of given days, i.e. as soon as it gets sunnier, the rate of this activity rises. This is not dissimilar to the breeding habits of pigeons who, while remaining sexually active throughout the year, show a marked increase in ‘interest’ as the days get longer. Therefore I am confident that the human nesting season has begun; a sure sign that the new spring is on its way!