Plant of the week: Beech tree

I always forget about Beech trees (especially in winter when they're quietly all around me with their smooth bark that leads me to confuse them with Sycamores (a heinous crime)). But now there's been a couple of days of sunshine and a couple of days of torrential downpours and their deliciously fresh green, satisfyingly sturdy-shaped leaves have burst forth in my little corner of north west England and I am in awe.

Beech (Fagus sylvatica)