Birch bark

We walked today in a very varied woodland 'garden', comprising mostly oaks, birches, pines and maples of one kind and another. Lots of flowering magnolias, cherries and apples and many different rhododendrons and azaleas too. Comparatively few birches though. This was one of two with bark like shredded tissue paper,and beautiful creamy new bark beneath.

The extra shows bristly, old ivy stems (now dead), climbing a tree trunk.