Magnolia

I noticed a leaf skeleton in the garden the other day and went out to find it this afternoon but couldn't. The leaf cover in the woods didn't turn anything up either until I looked under the magnolia tree. It's not ready to flower yet, but the ground underneath its branches was covered in these lacy leaf skeletons.

Picking them up and looking at them made me think how much my life has changed. I miss the rough and tumble of the office but there's so much about the corporate system I hate. I thought at one time that things such as dress codes were relaxing but they seem to have got worse. Gill has to abide by all kinds of petty rules when she heads off to work in a pharmacy. The supermarkets are the worst, telling people what they should and shouldn't wear. I thought about that when I was kicking the leaves about. It's a far cry from office meetings but in those offices I'd never have learned about the properties of magnolia leaves.

Two leaves.