Summer has come to Cardiff so, although she loves our Welsh rain, Dawn Redwood is also a lover of a sunny location and has been basking in the long sunny days. Her leaves are now fully developed, a rich vibrant green in colour, with leaves arranged opposite each other on the branches, flattened in shape, and around 12mm long and 1.5mm wide.

Although she doesn’t provide the dense shade of a horse chestnut, an oak or a beech, Dawn is much favoured by Cardiffians as a shady spot for a lunchtime picnic – on the two recent occasions I’ve passed by, there have been groups sitting on the grass below her, which is lovely to see but also means I haven’t been able to get too close for more intimate photos (I was intending to check her bark more thoroughly this month).

It surprises me a little that I’ve never seen any birds perched in Dawn’s branches, as I’d have thought she provided the perfect cover for the smaller birds as well as a well-elevated viewpoint for the larger birds like magpies and crows. However, Dawn is surrounded by trees – several varieties of prunus and some lovely magnolias, as well as other species I’m not sure of – so the birds have plenty of other spots to choose from.