Baby hazelnuts

These are on a small tree/bush in our garden.  We were, for a number of years, under the impression that it was a goat willow.  It came as one of a bargain lot of bare root trees - £10 for 10.  It must have been mislabelled.  Up to this year, it had produced no flowers to help with identification.  Last year, the chap who created our pond and meadow said it was a hazel, and earlier this year, it did produce a few catkins that looked pretty hazel like.  And today, I noticed these - wasn't sure what they were, but subsequently realised they are baby hazel nuts.  Well - that settles the question of identity.  There are only a few of them, and I suspect the squirrels will beat us to them in the autumn.

They're not very well in focus, and the pink thing in the background is my finger, but considering the strength of the wind, and the fact that these hang underneath the leaves, I think this is the best you can expect today.  I'll keep an eye on their maturation - they may appear again on Blip.

We watched Marvellous last night on iPlayer, after several other Blippers mentioned how good it was.  We were a little torn - certainly it was quite good fun - but to what extent were we laughing AT Neil, and to what extent did he understand, so we were laughing WITH him?  I'm not sure.