WATER

It's been warm and wet in Denmark all winter. Not Costa del Sol warm, but warmer than you would expect. Snow and ice have been markedly absent.

Water, on the other hand, has been abundant. The rainfall this winter was 245mm, more than a third higher than the average of 180mm. My wife's uncle, a retired farmer in the village, says that the fields are the wettest he's seen them in 70 years. Nearly every major field has a lake in it. His highland cattle, which he keeps as a hobby, are marooned on a small island surrounded by a sea.

On my hacienda there has always been water in a low-lying area near the kitchen garden, where an apple tree fell over some years ago. Now, however, that area is some 30 metres by 20 metres. Other parts of the property are boggy and swampy for the first time since we moved in back in 2002.

The water will eventually sink into the ground or flow out to the sea. But it seems as if this sort of thing will become more common in the future. I am glad that the ground floor of our house is raised a metre or so above the surrounding yard.

Walter Blotscher