Tree Following and Walk Where you May - a horse chestnut in a cemetery

It's six years now since I first heard about Tree Following and decided to follow a larch tree in Craiglockart Dell. Click here to see my blogpost about the development of the larch cones from beautiful red flower to mature cone.

This year I decided (belatedly) to join in again. Unfortunately the lockdown for coronavirus means that Craiglockart Dell is too far away for me to visit on our #DailyExercise, which must be a local walk. So I have chosen a horse chestnut tree in one of the local cemeteries to follow.

On 25 March, the leaves were just starting to emerge:

these next few photos show the buds as they progressed over the next week or so

(28 March)

 1 April (above and below)

4 April 

 5 April 

6 April 

8 April 

16 April

26 April

On the 30 April, I took these three photos to show how varied the flower candles are in terms of their development - all on the same tree:

 Here is the point where the old leaf has fallen off leaving a scar that looks a bit like a horse shoe, which may be how the tree got its name.

Looking up into the canopy

and a shot of the trunk

This tree is home to some interesting insects including this ten spot ladybird:

Thanks to Squirrel Basket for hosting this year's Tree Following. You can find out more and take part here.

Walk this May, the annual walking campaign has rebranded itself during lockdown as WalkWhereYouMay  and the Tree Council are asking people to use their walks to study one particular tree that they encounter on the way. Find out more here.