the apple tree – april
I’d left photographing the apple tree for this months Tree Following post until today, waiting for the light to be just right but after a weekend of low cloud and drizzle today had to be the day. My heart sank when I opened the door this morning to pouring rain and prepared myself for some pretty gloomy shots. But quite literally, every rain cloud has a silver lining as the rain made everything look fresher, the tree seemed to sparkle with the big heavy drops of water hanging from its branches.
The tightly closed leaf buds back in March, are now opening to reveal fresh green young leaves, matching the colour of the lichen (which incidentally seems to have changed colour in the rain from orange/yellow to yellowy green).
Underneath the apple tree there are newly emerged bistort leaves, clumps of dandelions and carpets of lesser celandines – the flowers of which remained firmly closed in the rain.
The branches of the tree offered a welcome perch to a surprising amount of birds this morning. In just a few minutes I spotted a goldfinch, several blue tits, a robin and a blackbird, all enjoying the apple tree despite the rain.
And then I was treated to a fantastic view of a blackcap singing melodically in the tree. They arrived to the churchyard last week, after migrating from West Africa, and their rich warble is a very distinctive sound at the moment – in fact I can even hear it from inside the church.
Joining in with Loose and Leafy’s ‘Tree Following’ project – do check out other trees being followed here
The apple tree in March
