Silver Birch

Up and about very early this morning with the added bonus of the sun being out - this afternoon it was heavy snowshowers. There are a lot of these attractive trees around here. They are the first to colonize a site, a pioneer species - good at taking over old industrial sites. They are short lived 40 - 60 years. On Colonsay (Scotland) Birch Boughs were hung over babies cradles in order to protect them from fairies. In Siberia a tribal people called the Khanty still use birch bark to make containers for food and peel off strips of the under bark to use as tinder for fires. The tree is not harmed. They also communicate through runic like symbols cut into birch trunks as messages - a sort of living signpost.