As a middle-aged man, you might argue that I have a vested interest in promoting the less obvious aesthetic value that is to be found in the old and the battered but the truth of the matter is that I do like the way that natural materials - wood, metal, stone - weather. Where laminate might chip, for example, wood records its own history. 

This tree, just outside Sedgwick, is perhaps an extreme example of the beauty that can come through age, not least because I think it might be dead. However, I still like it's substance and strength. Amazing to think that - what? a hundred years ago? more? - it was just a shoot, pushing its way up through the soil into the sunlight. (Or, it being Cumbria, probably rain.)