Despite the recent further unrequested batch of snow (that’s the cold frozen water sort by the way, in case you came here after Googling for Amy Winehouse or England Footballers), the first of this year’s Lapwings arrived late on Thursday (the 25th Feb 2010, for those reading on the BBC iPlayer).  There are still here, albeit in greater numbers some 2 days later, so, I think I can officially announce that Spring may possibly have Sprung – subject to legal advice, a full safety audit, and a broader public debate with all key stakeholders partners allied to my seasonal prediction remit.

Indeed we are now in a situation whereby any nocturnal disturbance causes a squadron of Lapwings to scramble into flight, along with much vocal activity on their part.  This in turn has disturbed the motley collection of owls we have built up over the winter (must have been a healthy crop of mice in the fields), which then manage to wake all sorts of creatures normal silent at night.  Indeed I am certain my amateur ears have noted the warning calls of several bird species as a result, including (and I have listened to recordings on the interweb to confirm this) three or more Albatrosses, the rare Squirrel Herding Eagle, two Waldo’s Perturbed Finches, one (male) Greater Striped Turnip Baboon, and almost certainly a Walrus – which obviously is on migration.

All this bodes well for the coming year, and I will of course report updates at extremely random intervals, often several weeks later than intended.

In the meantime, we have a raft of new beers for folk to try (see what I did there?  Seamless, wasn’t it.) , such as Bobek – a 4.0% golden beer brewed with Bobek hops.  Bobek is the new name for Styrian Goldings, which are in fact a type of Fuggle.  Whilst there is nothing wrong with Styrian Goldings as a name, it seems that since the political breakup of the area of East Europe once known a Yugoslavia etc, Styrian has become somewhat out of favour, so the hop formerly known as Styrian Goldings is now available under several names depending on the location it is grown in (the USA growers did the same thing for a while, so it’s not a new thing…), which may or may not include the likes of Bobek or Celeia.  On the other hand, this may all be pure flannel, as there is some suggestion they may all be just a tad different.  Agreement it seems, it hard to come by…

All this neatly leads on to another new beer, ‘Pure Flannel’ (did you spot the lead in…?) which is a 4.7% bitter (premium it seems is the word if you follow the laws of beer marketing), and is the first of a range of election themed beers (now the name makes sense, eh?) replete with suitable pump clips.  Whilst of course our tongue is firmly in our cheek, there is a serious message to all this – we live in a democracy, and as such election times matter.  Mostly though to those poor hapless muppets who will inevitably lose their jobs in public office.  And we should spare a thought for the ensuing hardships they will suffer – albeit only for a few hours as they await a place on the board of whatever plc/bank/oil company they have been ‘sympathetic’ to over their time in office buying duck houses or employing a third secretary for their cleaners.

Oh, and don’t forget the budget, coming soon to a payslip near you.  Will it be set for vote winning or debt clearance, any bets?