Sunshine and Frost

It was -1 when I set off for the supermarket this morning with everywhere covered in a light frost, but the air was still and the sun was breaking through.  

Later in the morning I joined up with a small group of people (3 actually) who were planting daffodil bulbs on Chestnut Avenue.  Not a good turnout when you consider there are about 83 houses up here.  Anyway it didn't take long to add a couple of hundred bulbs to the others that are already established.

We have around 31 old chestnut trees on the avenue but they have all been diagnosed with bleeding canker which will eventually kill them.  Affected branches have been cut out and they will continue to be monitored but it's what to do in the meantime.  Do we plant healthy trees in between the others, remove alternate trees on either side of the road?  All these decisions have to be made but there's no-one willing to take on the role of decision-maker.

At the front of our house we look up towards an enormous variegated Beech tree, which is losing its variegation but is still quite a specimen.  This is just a tiny part of it.