Following a tree through the year

I've just signed up to follow a tree! That sounds as if a tree got up and walked and I snuck along behind!
As usual when it comes to technical bloggy things I'm not sure what I'm doing but I think I've linked up with Loose and leafy blog  to do a post on the 7th of each month about a tree. I should have started earlier in the year and today is the 8th so I'm already too late - story of my life!

These, on the left of the photo, are the sticky buds opening on our Horse Chestnut  last week. The Horse Chestnut is the tree I will be following with photos

 I believe our tree is a
Ruby Horse Chestnut tree is a particularly choice clone of a hybrid horse chestnut, resulting from a cross between the European horse chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum) with white flowers and an eastern North American native (the shrubby Aesculus pavia) with red ones. It is a better landscape plant than either of its parents and should be planted more widely. 'Briotii' originated in 1858 from seed grown at the Trianon in France.

I didn't know that in the States the Horse Chestnut is known as the Buckeye, so I've learned something already.
Here is our tree today

We are not sure how old it is, probably around 40 years at a guess. (This is an awful photo- must try and keep still when I click!) It was already a good size when we moved here in May 1992 and  it was a treat to find it flowering with pink flowers, taking me back to primary school days where we had a huge pink flowered Horse Chestnut in the playground.
Who ever planted this tree unfortunately put a row of Leyllandii very close. We can't remove them as they separate our garden from the campsite. I'm sure they have restricted the growth of  the Chestnut.

I completely forgot to mention that April 4th marked one year of blogging on Blogspot after my trials of using Wordpress. I've made so many blogging friends during that year. It's been brilliant. So a belated thank you to everyone who has read, commented and hopefully enjoyed reading about our quiet Suffolk life.

Back tomorrow
Sue