... that's a cool (no pun intended) picture, rosetree ...

Digging out this thread although winter is really over... temperatures are really going crazy above average in Germany - today I had to turn on the air conditioning in my car, which I never did so early in April before. Tomorrow the southwest of Germany is to reach 79F. The apple blossom has been out for a week, a lot of trees are already LOSING their blossoms again, big poplar trees are getting green already (normally mid May), and there are loads of wasps and bees flying around. I guess the bad part of our complete lack of winter will be a lot of pests and insects in summer, and the further spread of subtropical plants and insects which cause problems for endemic species...