Two Wych Elms, close to home.

Last year I noticed the one on the left had lighter coloured leaves in the Summer, and these turned and fell very much earlier than the tree on the right. This year, the same again, but more noticeably so. The leaves just didn't ever darken as would be expected.

I'd mistakenly assumed that these elms weren't susceptible to Dutch Elm Disease. Unfortunately that's not the case. They are less susceptible to it, but not immune. I very much suspect we're seeing the early signs of another victim. Although it's normal for odd branches to die off first rather the whole tree. So this could be some other problem.

Locally there are many Wych Elms, that have either recently died, or are on their last legs/leaves. Very sad, especially when you also hear stories of Ash trees dying off in Europe, and some Oaks having issues. In Bill Bryson's humorous book, A Walk In The Woods, I recall him writing of species of North American trees that had been wiped out in the recent past.

Allegedly large parts of the Highlands had escaped Dutch Elm Disease, because of the distance between the affected Southern woods, and here... that is, until some plonker brought a trailer load of infected timber up for fire wood. We're not exactly short of timber hereabouts, that you have to import it for your fire!

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Apologies for the out of character shriek yesterday. Normal, boringly sedate service has been resumed. The 55 year old camera came up with the goods. Twelve prints from twelve exposures. And all were "Goldilocks" ones too - not over, nor under, but (exposed) just right! Heck they even looked to be in focus too!

Loaded up the next film today, but couldn't escape at lunchtime. Black & White again, and there's another one still in the fridge. I'm also tempted to try some posh colour negative film in the future.

Now need to find the carrier for the larger negatives, so they can be scanned. At the time I bought the scanner, I seem to recall leaving that in the box, thinking, "No use for that. I've only ever used 35mm slides and negatives..." Not sure which photo to choose from the dozen, for the 16th September's back-Blip. Anyway, first of all it's time to go rifle through stuff in the loft...