Tree Lace

Have you ever looked, really looked, at trees when they have lost all their leaves? I was sixteen when I came out of school one grey wintery day.

The girl's college was on one side of the road and the boy's college was on the other side of the road. The boy's college was a poshy private school and had the buildings, grounds and trees to prove it.

The trees had all lost their leaves and I saw for the first time, while waiting for the bus, the beauty of a tree without leaves. Tree lace.

Patrick White, the great Australian Author and Poet noticed it too and wrote about it in his poem 'The swan flies over the lace corals of the trees'.

John Updike, the American poet, also wrote in his poem 'January' about 'The trees’ black lace.'

Blue Lace

Recently I looked up into the winter sky again to see Blue Lace.

Blue Lace Silver Birch Tree

 

 We are used to seeing bare trees against a grey sky, but here was my lovely silver birch tree giving me a delightful display of blue lace.