For Amy my Nostalgia.

Looking good Bjs. I was just saying to my grandaughter when taking her to school in Windsor how beautiful they look on the green in Datchet. There are quite a few. I also said what a shame it is when they show all that "rust" disease later in the season.

Thorneyside
Small world been to Datchet a number of times in my flower showing days the Auricula & Primula soc used to use the village hall, many a time I have waived to the airline pilots as they just about cleared the houses coming in to land,do they still use the same flight path.?
As for the Chestnuts the two in my garden are fairly isolated. Much more Ash and that is worrying having them taken down would be a major job.One can be just seen in the left of the picture not quite as high as the chestnut but high enough.

The Ashes across the road from me are just breaking bud now. The mountain Ash has just become 'clothed' and at last it really feels like Spring! :) Horse Chestnut trees are magnificent in flower. Last noght I was admiring the large trees that border my daughter's back garden. She has Birch, sycamores and possibly a Lime, but not entirely sure yet. Lovely to have large trees to give you privacy and shelter!

Good grief Brian I was expecting to see a tiny pot LOL.. wow ! its huge and would you believe theres only approx 5 years difference between yours and mine its hard to believe isn't it ? lots of Conkers for Rhys & Felicity to play games with :o)

That is a magnificent tree.......

Yes, they still use the same flightpath Bjs and I'm right under it. Waiting for news of 3rd runway unless they put off the decision yet again.

Thorneyside rather you than me I would worry about the degree of pollution you have there and of course the noise level,think i will stick with my green fields on the edge of Bristol.

Lovely tree Bjs. Reminds me of the time at school when we played conkers and used old shoelaces to string them on to.

I love "Conker" trees! We are fortunate in that 100s were planted here when the big housing estate was built! This week they are at their best! I take photos of them every year! There is a path - well, 2 really, 1 on either side of the road, where you can see four rows of these magnificent trees in flower during May. I took a few photos just this past week!

It's a shame how the leaves are destroyed by a leaf miner, that I believe came from abroad, here they cause all the leaves on the tree to dry up & fall off in September - when you walk along this path it's like autumn! It's a crying shame nothing can be done about them, the defoliation of the trees weakens them & it's plain to see this in that the "Conkers" are very small & there are lots less of them. The trees are dying in some instances as well. There are 1,000s of the moths under the trees in midsummer & they form clouds of flying insects just like gnats! The birds don't seem to eat them as far as I know. I've never seen any kind of bird flying through the swarms like Swallows feeding on gnats. Here they produce at least 2 generations every year.

Balcony An interesting read,I do have some marking on the leaves but not enough to cause the leaves to fall early ,I hope it does not get worse.shall look and see if I see any insects/moths swarming.

I first spotted the moths under a Horse Chestnut tree in a field I used to cross on my way to work. One day I was so struck by the amount of flies under the tree that I went out of my way to see them close up. They were too small to really see & they move so quickly that it's impossible to get a look at any one individual. That must have been more than 10 years ago.

We have to duck when we go along the path I mentioned. It leads up to our doctors' surgery & pharmacy so we have to go along the path at least once a month. Mid summer onwards when they hatch out it's like walking through a cloud of gnats - only these don't bite!

It very clear to see the two generations "work" on the trees as the lower third of the trees' leaves are twisted & brown & are falling off in August. The third above these are full of tunnels & are beginning to go brown as well by September. In October there are hardly any leaves on the trees.

There are very few conkers on the trees in September/October & what there are are often very small.

What I find most curious is that the pink ones are hardly affected! It's the commonest, white ones that suffer the most.