Sunny days on the West Coast. Things are warming up, it’s promising. Here is a close-up of fresh baby leaves, sprouting on the trunk of a gigantic arbutus (Arbutus menziesii, also known as madrone or madrona in the USA).

This tree is at least 6 feet in circumference, and this is the smooth side. You can glimpse a bit of the rough edges on the left.I chose to zoom in on the ant to give you an idea of the smoothness of the bark, and scale… I think arbutus is a tree with lots of personality. More photos coming…