"If The Ash Is Out Before The Oak ...."

" .... we will have a mighty soak."

Seems that the ash is out first this year, bucking the recent trend which was allegedly caused by climate change. I've been waiting for the ash to come into leaf since I saw a feature in the paper about an exhibition at The Whitechapel Gallery, from April 16, of German sculptor and art professor Karl Blossfeldt's photographs. He used photos of plants to educate his students about design elements and published a book in 1928 entitled Urformen der Kunst (Art Forms in Nature).

His Manna Ash and similar photographs influenced architects and science fiction writers. Manna Ash looks a bit like Ridley Scott's Alien. My European Ash definitely has a face. It has spiky hair, slitty eyes, a long nose and a pursed mouth. It's a sort of cross between a mandrill, a shoebill and an alien.