Trees I have known

a downy birch with witches broom, nr Beeley, Derbyshire

When I first saw this tree, I stopped in my tracks. (I was running at the time so that’s not as hyperbolic as it sounds.) It has the same impact on me even now. The balls of witches’ broom seem like decorations. I see swirls of rich, inky colour where there is only muted green, silver, and auburn, as if a sepia filter had been layed over an illustration from a book of fairy tales. None of its neighbours have these adornments and usually broom would grow in thicker, less artful clumps. This tree seems favoured.