Springtime on campus

This morning I took a long walk with a friend through campus to make the most of the fact that the weather is absolutely gorgeous. We went through the woods that separate campus from the medical school (in which live, I suspect, strange mutant bunnies that have resulted from experiments – just kidding) and strayed off the beaten track. What never ceases to amaze me about campus in the spring is how little we appreciate the surroundings we have. There is so much wildlife here. Badgers, foxes, squirrels, rabbits, deer, ducks, geese… even rats… they all live around the residence that I live in and many of the animals are tame enough to sit, at a distance, munching grass as you walk past. With the exception of the rats. I’m quite happy for those to remain at a distance from me forever.

It’s not just the animals either. There are so many flowers blooming all over the grounds. Cherry blossom, daffodils, bluebells… It’s hard not to feel chirpy as you wander around taking in the scenery. There are only two issues with the arrival of sunny weather coupled with woods and fields. The first is that all desire to study floats away with the spring breeze. The second? I’ll give you a clue. It’s yellow and black and it buzzes. That’s right. Bees and wasps. I put them all into the same category you see. In fact, hornets are honorary members too. I cannot bear the thought of a bee or wasp (or hornet) landing on me or buzzing near my ear or (gulp) stinging me. I have quite an irrational reaction to what I consider to be quite a rational fear. Therefore I have come to the conclusion that in order to reduce the impact of these two negative side effects of glorious weather, two things need to be done:

1) Spring and summer need to be extended so we get used to them, that way the warm weather and sunshine are not such a novelty and work still gets done from time to time.

2) Some sort of invisible forcefield needs to be invented that can surround a human being and repels anything with a sting.

Neither are likely to happen. In fact I wouldn’t know how to go about doing the first. I would make some lame joke about global warming turning the UK into a tropical island in time but it would appear that our winters are getting colder and colder so I’m pretty sure encouraging global warming would backfire big time.

So what else can we do but make the most of it while it lasts? Enjoy the photos!