Beauty and grace of resilient birch

LOOKING out of the window in the direction of the bog I can see a couple of small birch woods.

The pale trunks are shining in the wintry sunlight. I like looking at them. Birches are among my favourite trees.

They’re never very large and they’re not long lived —- birches seldom reach a hundred years unless they’re coppiced. But there is a grace and beauty about their summer and autumn foliage and the wonderful winter colour of their trunks.