Tree Following December Update

For Tree Following this year, I've chosen a magnificent old cherry tree in North Merchiston Cemetery in Edinburgh. Crafty Green Boyfriend and I started walking round this cemetery every day for our #DailyExercise during the first UK lockdown last year. And we're still doing the same walk regularly, though not quite as often. I also sometimes pop into the cemetery after doing my weekly patrol along the Water of Leith.

By mid November the cherry tree in North Merchiston Cemetery was bare of leaves.

but looking carefully, there were already signs of new life, look at these buds! 

Further on in November, the tree is very bare indeed

 

but the ivy still looks beautifully green

and looking closely, you can see that some of the ivy was still in bloom and some has matured into berries.

 Ladybirds often hibernate on gravestones, so late November I checked under this gravestone under the cherry tree and found these ladybirds. Although these look like different species, they are actually two colour forms of the common Two Spot ladybird - the standard form (red with black spots) and the sexpustulata form (black with red spots). These ladybirds will have spent the summer in the cherry tree and then fallen on to the gravestone to find a cosy hibernation spot.

Earlier today, the tree was covered in snow

as was the ivy surrounding the tree

Back in 2014, I followed a larch tree in Craiglockart Dell for Tree Following. I still see this tree regularly when I'm carrying out my volunteer patrols of the Dells for the Water of Leith Conservation Trust. I took this photo near the end of November, the larch looks beautiful in its autumnal yellow. (Larches are the only conifers that lose their needles over the winter.)