It is a little disconcerting though because there’s the looming concern of global warming and the effect it is having on our weather. So as much as I adore being able to hang outside and bask in the Sun’s warmth, it concerns me…

I remember a summer back in the UK in 1976. It was so hot cars were sinking into the tarmac on the roads and schools closed with no air-conditioning back then. The temperature topped 90°F (32.2°C). To add to the misery of a heatwave, we were also in the middle of a drought and with the water shortage, it was complete madness!

Luckily we all survived, so no doubt we’ll survive this one as well. Trouble is I’m not so certain that our Earth will be as resilient the next time round.

The planet Venus has become my favourite heavenly body to gaze at when we go for our evening walks. It sits in the western sky and blazes like a radiant star, as if to disguise its true identity, that of a planet.

Venus is known as Earth’s sister planet because it is similar in size. It get its name from the Roman Goddess of Love Venus. Its easy to see why this planet was named after the Goddess of Love because it is truly a thing of beauty.

I have always liked the differing seasons and would find it hard to adjust to life in a place where it was always hot or always cold. That said it is true that in mid Winter my body aches for the Sun’s warmth and the longer daylight hours.

As nice as the weather is today, Spring usually has an intemperate climate because of the warm air pushing it’s way up from the southern regions whilst cold air is still coming in from the North.

Still it ushers in a period of new growth and births. It is a time of renewal and fresh starts. Spring is the very definition of the word anecdote. It is the precursor to Mother Nature’s real main event, Summer, of course!

At around 11:45pm on Sunday night the outlook was bleak. The sky was cloudy making it practically impossible to see anything, let alone meteors. However at about midnight there was a clearing, right where the shower was supposed to originate which gradually got clearer and clearer. So off we went on our bikes, riding into the night. Even before we reached our prime location for meteor gazing, we saw a bright meteor streaking across the black velvety sky backdrop. It was awe-inspiring.

We now felt confident that we would see a decent shower event. In the span of about forty-five minutes we saw approximately forty meteors. Almost one a minute! This shower was the most active one we had experienced all year long. It was superb.

Towards the end of our trip, we saw one meteor that shot its way across the sky in a blaze of glorious light. It looked like the epitome of a shooting star. Indeed we came to appreciate why meteors were given that description many eons ago. It would have been easy to mistake these magnificent events for stars falling from the heavens.

What an experience! One I shall remember for many years to come.

One interesting fact I have learnt is that the word “meteor” doesn’t actually refer to the object, but rather the event. In the same way that scoring a goal in football (soccer) or hitting a homerun in American baseball, where the words “goal” and “homerun” refer to sequence of actions required to score the goal or hit the homerun.

So the word meteor would entail the entire path of the meteoroid entering our atmosphere from outer space. The word meteoroid refers to the particle itself.

The best time to see meteors is in the pre-dawn hours before the peak. So this week’s anecdote starts on a rather chilly Tuesday morning. We trundled off on our bikes looking for somewhere dark enough to get a good view of the show. We found a little spot and waited with baited breath. After a few minutes we saw the first of several that would grace our presence that morning. They tumbled out of the sky like falling stars, hurtling to certain death. It was magnificent.

The next show to be put on by our space friends will be this December and I can’t wait for the curtain to go up.

However it’s a strange phenomenon that human’s can find some comfort in the monotony of certain events. Knowing the script and even how the show will end can give one a sense of confidence and a certain degree of ego.

I recently watched a fascinating anecdote documentary called “The Last Beekeeper”. It’s all about three commercial beekeepers and the struggle to maintain their livelihood. Firstly, what struck me about the show was how much the number of bees in North America has declined over the last thirty years. It was quite astonishing. Secondly, I was surprised to learn that scientists haven’t a clue why the bees are dying. It seems that a combination of factors are contributing to the demise of these creatures, but no one has been able to narrow it down enough to form a practical diagnosis.

So what on earth does this have to do with the human experience? Well I watched the show and sort of knew where we were going to end up. However you couldn’t deny the heart of these very normal people trying desperately to survive and provide for their families.

In spite of the trials of the bees, the demise of the key characters in the show was the real story – “the human experience”. It makes sense to use anecdotal visages to garner interest in an environmental plight. In this show it was used to maximum effect. It got me thinking and doing a bit of research about this little known “industry”. It also made me realize that we are all part of this human experience, no matter where or what kind of business we are engaged in.

Scientists will invariably find out why the bees are dying and hopefully create a cure or prevention. It’s how we humans maneuver through these difficulties that is the real story, however monotonous and boring that may seem.

So I cajoled Mark into coaxing our new lodger back down into the street outside. Mark gingerly approached the spider with a bit of paper and stretched up towards him. He sort of fell onto the paper and as we started to transport him to this new home, he managed to scuttle away. He sprinted under the wheels of my bike and disappeared into the darkness outside. Or so we thought.

This morning I spotted him a little further down the wall. Having to come face to face with him every time we exited and entered our building was a tad too much for me. So I once again begged Mark to release him into the sunshine outside. This time the transplant was successful.

As Mark placed him onto a seemingly vacant cobweb, a much smaller spider came out of nowhere and attacked. Our spider, being much larger, enveloped him and they became one. I turned away, because I am a bit squeamish but Mark later related that our spider was not the aggressor. He merely started to explore this wild and untamed land only to be attacked for no reason. Obviously the smaller spider felt threatened and this was probably his cobweb. We had interfered with nature, but it’s my sincere belief that our spider would have found that web located just a few feet outside our front door anyway. Therefore my conscience is clear.

Check out the photo of our alpha-spider. What a fine specimen he is!

The owl’s wide round face is designed as a sort of satellite dish, allowing it to funnel in noises from great distances and tune its hearing onto possible prey. This same trait enables the owl to catch prey sitting several inches beneath packed snow. It is a creature simply designed to hunt and kill.

The video below encapsulates this fascinating bird in all its glory and at its most magnificent. We find it breathtakingly beautiful and we hope that you are equally impressed.

For year’s scientists, in particular, physicists have believed that parallel universes were the stuff of sci-fi movies and nothing more. However recent developments in search for the all-important singular theory related to the beginning of our universe, has led scientists back to the idea of parallel universes.

“M” Theory is based on the formula that our universe is made up of ten dimensions – originally. Scientists tried to make this theory applicable to all aspects of our universe in an attempt to explain the origins of life. Despite all the advances that have been made in exploring and understanding our universe, the all-encompassing equation that will explain the reason we are here has eluded science.

After many attempts to make this theory “work” in explaining the origins of our existence, scientists were left with five versions of the same formula. A far cry from the one single formula needed to explain how our universe came into being. By adding an eleventh dimension to the theory – that of “parallel universes”, the formula became one and brought us one step closer to solving the conundrum of “The Big Bang”.

The eleventh dimension allowed for the theory to work. With more than one universe in existence, interactions between these universes could explain “The Big Bang” and the creation of matter as a result of this experience. Even more exciting is that, once scientist have proven “M” Theory as accurate, they will be able to push our history prior to “The Big Bang” to see the character of Outer Space before our universe came into being.

So once again, science is on the brink of formulating the origins of life and the reason we are here all rolled into one theory. Only time will tell if “M” Theory will transcend all the hype surrounding it. After all this isn’t the movies and once the credits roll up we all go back to our “normal” lives in this “one” universe – supposedly. In the upcoming years, science could change our thinking on parallel universes completely and bring this science fiction off the cinema screens and straight to our front door.