Country diary: the most seductive shade of green

Goyt valley, Derbyshire: Beech trees are in their best fresh leaf - and therein lies the greatest irony of these magnificent giantsMaybe it's this single morning of sunshine, set amid the relentless grey of this bizarre spring, that makes me look upon the old beech trees on the upper west slope of this valley as some enlarged statement of new life.They are all in fresh leaf and I feel I could almost breathe directly the oxygen pouring out of them as they photosynthesise. They are also the most seductive shade in the whole green canopy. It is partly determined by tiny details in every single leaf, which is divided by about 10 pleats either side of the midrib. These subsections are at an angle to the plane of their neighbours, so that every strip reflects light differently. Then each leaf is fringed with a margin of hairs, and as the sun shines through, they trap some scintilla of silver to encircle every green oval in a shining aura. Continue reading...