Good News and Bad News from the Rectory Garden

Last year the oak tree wasn't looking all that happy. It came into leaf far later than the other trees in the garden, and later than other oaks round about, and its leaf cover was patchy, the leaves clumping in small groups along the branches. Over the autumn and winter, it's been looking progressively more hoary and lichen-covered. Small branches have obviously been dying and dropping off. This year, the effects are even more marked, and I've found four or five of the dark lower-trunk wounds which are the tell-tale marks of Acute Oak Decline Syndrome. There's no clear known cause for AODS, and certainly no treatment. You might as well hug your tree and talk to it encouragingly, so I'm doing that. 

Meanwhile there is a spot where I would quite like a small tree, but which has successfully killed three so far, the prunus that was there when I moved in, a little fir, and an ash sapling transferred from a less favourable spot. I was beginning to feel reluctant to risk even a self-seeded rowan there. But now I discover an ash has put itself there and looks fairly healthy so far.

Meanwhile some flowers are back this Spring as usual, and others are here for the first time. The lawn (such as it is) is enlivened with beautiful blue patches of germander speedwell ...

... while the Great Burnet and Spotted Medick are new, I believe. The latter is tiny and hard to see. I'm used to its cousin Black Medick, but this plant has dark marks on the leaves, which you can just about glimpse in the photo.