Sticky Buds

This is from the Horse Chestnut tree, sometimes called Conker from the nut it produces or Sticky Buds as the above picture shows.   I was surprised to read that it isn't native to Gt Britain but that it was introduced from the Balkans.   I also hadn't noticed that the old leaf scars look like horseshoes, I'll have to look for that next time I see one.     You can see that when this was taken we had brilliant blue sky, not that it lasted very long and the north easterly wind is still bitterly cold.