Often overlooked.

I'm nuts about Hazel. One of my favourite trees.

These catkins spread their pollen into the wind far and wide, in the hope of landing on a female flower, where a nut will be produced. Female flowers normally open after the male catkins, to ensure cross pollination with a separate tree. But here we can see both on the same twiglet (the female flower is that red spider like structure on the leaf bud).

Went to Ullapool today, stopping off at the accountants to pick up our financial report for the Development Company. A walk along the Ullapool river where I spotted this blip, a delicious lunch in one of the pubs (Crab claws in garlic and ginger with salad and olive bread), but they didn't have any ales on, so made do with soda water. G had venison burger and chips..

Drove back through driving snow, but it wasn't settling on the roads..