Well, what a difference a month makes…

A whizz through the month – (if you want to see every day’s picture, they’re all on my Instagram site, you can get there by clicking the Instagram pictures or icon in the left sidebar).
You can see that at last the oak has leaves. I first caught a glimpse of pale fuzzy browny greenness towards the end of the first week in April, but I couldn’t get close enough to see really well, but other oaks along the lane started to unfurl at that time too. Within a week, you could see them for sure on the sunny days.
So I’ve learned that the oaks come into leaf a lot later than the horse-chestnuts, which are already sporting a full head of leaves and lots of candles, but there are still a few trees on the lane without leaves – now I have to go out with a book so I can work out what they are…
The last picture here was taken yesterday – quite a change from mid March.
The weather has been much better over the last few weeks, but the most noticeable thing by far for me, is the huge explosion of growth in the hedgerow and the banks. The sheer amount of plant life that has sprung up in the last couple of weeks is incredible. It’s easier to understand how important this time of year was to our ancestors when you see the rapid increase in green leaves suddenly appearing everywhere. The blossom has been and now is largely gone. Today I realised that the brambles have practically doubled in size as their new leaves seem to have shot out of nowhere. What a relief it must have been after the harshness of winter to welcome back all this plant life.
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I try to post every picture I take on the same day on my Instagram site – if you would like to watch the oak more often, follow me on Instagram
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