I did too. Thank you so much to Arty and the LLB gang for such a great idea!
Today I am going to don my Bouncing Bertie Boffin hat and tell you about spotty sycamore leaves.
We have loads of sycamore trees in Aberdeen - including one in the street right outside my house. At this time of year the ground is covered with their large leaves, often daubed with black splodges of tar spot fungus.
Sounds bad doesn't it? I mean, how would you like to be infected with a fungus and end up covered in black spots?
Of course if you were a Dalmatian you might not notice the difference...
I digress.
But you know what? The fungus really doesn't harm the trees, and for the rest of us it's a welcome sight.
You see tar spot fungus only grows where the air is clean and free of sulphur dioxide. In the bad old days when the UK's many coal-fired power stations were belching out sulphurous pollution you rarely saw spotty sycamore leaves.
But now they're a common sight, thanks to clean air legislation.
A timely reminder folks, that governments (and the EU) sometimes pass good and necessary laws!
