A sycamore tree — Copyright Graham Hogg

If I were a tree

If I were a tree I definitely wouldn’t be a Silver Birch — tall and glamorous, aloof, turning the admiring heads of passers-by, confident in my silver-barked radiance. Nor would I be an exciting Horse Chestnut, enticing little boys to scour the ground for nut brown treasures. Large Oaks would not grow from my little acorns. No, I think I’d be the scruffy Sycamore, an every day tree that tolerates hardships well —scornfully resisting pollution and wind — a practical, no nonsense, public service tree, going largely unnoticed.