False hope

These opening fir buds look as if they're ready for growth but they never will get anywhere as they are no longer attached to the trees. A couple of dozen trees were blown down months ago but still sprouted leaves, a few days ago they were removed from across the path leaving just debris and final buds. There must be analogies that could be drawn there.
The pic was taken when I was waiting near my marshalling point until it was nearly time for the first runners to come through on our club trail race. My point was in the shade so I didn't move there until the last minute. There's an extra of the light towards the hills just before the race started.
The morning was wet so I got a load of admin done, in fact I was so up-to-date I dealt with emails that had come in during the morning.
By lunchtime the sun was out and I got 2 loads of washing done and dry and a fair bit of gardening.
A profitable day.