Philobiblon

It speaks of just how fast things are changing:

Grass can grow only when the ambient temperature is 5C (40F) or higher. Until recently lawns could be left untended between November and March as the average temperature for the winter months was a chilly 3.7C. But a mild November and December, which averaged 6.4C, was followed by the warmest January since 1916, and the second-warmest on record, at 5.9C. In the South averages were even higher, at 7.1C.
Tim Sparks, an environmental scientist at the National Environmental Research Council, in Cambridge, said that between 1961 and 1990 the average January temperature was 3.8C. But January the past five years has been above average, and grass was growing all year.
He said that three years ago only 20 per cent of people would cut their lawns between November and February. “Going back 20 years that figure would have been almost zero.”