Looking around the countryside and I came across a strange thing.....

Although the forecast for the weekend was bad and we did have some rain yesterday, today was beautiful, warm and sunny. Laura came over for lunch and when we came home I spotted this lovely tree sporting loads of catkins!! I took a few photos but this was the only one that came out in focus. I was really disappointed but now I have looked back over them I realise that it was because the catkins were blowing hard in the wind and my shutter speed was slow as we were in a shaded area.
I was hoping to catch the first daffodils blooming but we didn't see any on our journey, but we did come across a very unusual tree in one of the lanes near to Hertford.........

We came across a tree with loads of shoes and boots dangling from the branches!! It was a real surprise, traditional country lane, beautiful scenery and bang, a tree of shoes, completely out of place!!!


I just had to take a photo or two. Once we got up close you could see that these items of foot wear were mainly boots and trainers and they actually looked to have a lot of wear left in them.

Some had obviously been there for some time as they were going slightly green and were looking weathered around the edges.

When I got back I looked up the phenomenon on the Internet and it seems that there are trees world wide covered in shoes, nobody really knows how it started or why it continues. Superstition says that people leave them to welcome aliens (???) or to appease the gods and seek a fertile marriage (again ????) I think its people having a laugh, it appeals to me, and I might have to have a laugh and start my own 'shoe tree' Watch out Welwyn Garden City!!!!