Trees

Here in England, the many deciduous trees show the seasons in a way the Australian evergreens don't. The lack of leaves clearly shows that it is winter, and sometimes it can seem gloomy compared to the greenery of summer. However, I've come to see that bare branches can be very beautiful - covered in snow, appearing through the mist and especially against the bright blue sky on a clear sunny day.

This morning as I was waiting for a bus, some trees across the road formed not only a fine silhouette, but a playground for a pair of squirrels. They scurried around the trunks and along the branches, leaping from branch to branch in a way that defied the apparent delicacy of the thinnest branches. At first it seemed that they were chasing each other, but then I saw that the very slightly larger one in the lead seemed to be stopping and waiting for the one behind, making me think it was a mother teaching a child the art of tree-scampering.

These grey squirrels are considered pests, as they have been introduced from North America and increase in number rapidly, displacing the native red squirrels. Some of the plans to remove them and protect the red squirrels probably have merit, but while I watched these two run around until the bus came, I was jsut glad to see any squirrels at all.