COLOURFUL BARK.....

.....on a beautiful tree.

If there can be a bonus to using “silver legs” and of course, one can always find a bonus - it is that when walking much more slowly, one sees more.

I don’t think I have ever really noticed this tree which is on the grass outside our neighbours’ house, but today, walking back from the bus stop, I couldn’t help but notice it.

The trunk is a beautiful rich mahogany colour, striped with bands of peeling bark, although parts of the tree look a little gnarled in places. Guess that’s a bit how we look as we get older - some of us age beautifully, but some, because of all they have been through, look a little “worse for wear” - but I think you will agree that there is still beauty in this rough and twisted bark.

I thought at first the tree was a birch, but having “Googled” it, think it is more likely to be an ornamental cherry, perhaps a Prunus serrula.

A tree is known by its fruit;
a man by his deeds.
A good deed is never lost,
he who sows
courtesy reaps friendship,
and he who plants kindness
gathers love.
St Basil