First sign of life

A bud, finally appearing on the tree at the front of my house. In the background is my neighbour's tree which is almost in full leaf and had blossom as early as two weeks ago.
Granted, the plant species are different, and granted the neighbouring tree gets a little more sunlight and a little more protection from the wind. But it's still quite a remarkable variation, don't you think? Micro-climate in action!

Carl Zeiss Jena 135mm (effective focal length 270mm) @ f6.7, manual focus, hand-held. If you can cope with manual focus and manual or AE exposure, M42 lenses like these offer a good resource of decent cheap glass for your M4/3 or DSLR photography