If you grew up in England when I did, a very long time ago, there’s a good chance that you had nature study classes. If you lived in a town, perhaps that meant a crocodile walk to the nearest park. Mine was, and even though I moved away I live close to that same park now. I loved the huge trees then and I was heartbroken when many of the ancient beings were lost in the 1987 hurricane.

I think the main reason for those classes was some respite for teachers while little horrors like me got to let off some steam. I knew the names of all the trees back then, but somewhere at the end of childhood I forgot most of them.

Luckily there’s a green at the bottom of my road. I once counted more than twenty varieties of trees there but only know what half of them are. Today I stopped in my tracks when I saw these unfolding leaf buds.  It most likely is a native tree, but the complementary colours opposite on the colour wheel and their striking form made them something different to me.

Tina set the Lens Artist challenge theme this week, with ‘Something different‘. Her cactus photos are amazing but I love the pink flowers.