monday verse: a wood coming into leaf

From the first to the second Warily, from the tip to the palm Third leaf (the blackthorn done) From the fourth to the fifth and (Latrix, Castanea, Fraxinus, Tilja) Thaw taps, groping in stumps, frost like an adder easing away The sixth to the seventh (plums conceive a knobbly stone within a blossom) Ushers the …

weekly photo challenge: grand

Pine tree from the ground up. This is a native pine, rather than one planted commercially for timber. They grow in the mixed woodland around the house, together with beech and oak. I love the rough texture of their bark, their elegant proportions, their resinous scent. Their grandeur.