Redbud Detail
Really pleasing shot - I often think that closeup reveals more of the whole personality than people believe.
Trees are broadly the same (I duck) but the truth's in the detail, along with their devils. Almost all our garden's palms have now been killed by a beetle that was imported into Spain in some cheap African-sourced palms, and then spread like a wildfire through the island's palm community. I discovered them in our latest casualty some months ago - they are about the size of a cockroach. I sprayed them with much of the contents of a bug killer and for a while, it looked as if I'd been just in time, with only two fronds dead. Then, recently, all the rest of the fronds seemed to brown and die within a week. It remains for the gardeners to cut and dig the dead plant out and have it removed to a special dump where they have to be incinerated.
When we came to live here (Mallorca) over thirty years ago, geraniums were as common as flies. We had them in every pot - more or less - and they regenerated year after year. Then, about twenty years ago, as with the palms, somebody enthused with greed imported cheaply from Africa and we got more than that for which they'd bargained. Geraniums now live until the tiny blue/grey moth settles, deposits its eggs, and then the stems turn black, rot and fall to bits. We hardly buy them anymore - only for a quick flash of glamour and colour if somebody is trying to show a house for sale!
How fragile life.
Rob C
