DURING the last few weeks I have greatly enjoyed watching the warm weather propel the changing of the seasons from winter at spring at almost break-neck pace.

Fresh green shoots have been sprouting everywhere, and the first spring flowers are now in bloom.

The landscape is also changing, as every day the woody browns of tree-covered fields and hedgerows slowly start to transform into a variety of shades of lush green as new leaves start to unfold on many of the trees.

During past weeks I have been keeping an eye on one tree, which I pass regularly, as it burst into life. I found watching this quite amazing.

This tree was no special tree, being only in the second year of its life, and had spent most of the winter resembling nothing more than a 1.5 metre twig.

The tree is a horse chestnut, which is not strictly a native tree to England, having been introduced to our shores in the mid-1500s.

I am not too sure why this species of tree was brought here from its south eastern European and western Asian home land, as the tree has little commercial value - its timber is almost value-less.

However, it is an easy to establish tree and when mature is rather pretty, as it produces wonderful white or slightly pinkish spikes of flowers in May, which make the tree look as decorative as many a town Christmas tree.

The little tree I was watching was far too small to bear flowers, but it did have rather attractive deep brown, glistening and sticky buds.

For the past couple of weeks I watched these buds start to swell and in the heat of the mid-day sun their sticky resin-like covering looked as if it was melting, revealing the scaly-looking bud beneath.

Then one morning the bud looked as though it had sprouted wings of downy silver, which made them look more like strange, hairy flower.

The following morning I could see the first glimpses of green, and by the afternoon a thin green stalk had emerged and a large crumpled green leaf had started to unfold.

By the next day this had opened up into a large hand-like leaf which bobbed in the breeze, and I could see more new life starting to emerge.

Within just a few days, this bare twig had burst into life and transformed into a beautiful young tree, which looked so full of life.

With our ever-increasing urban lifestyles it is often good to stop and watch little moments of nature's glory like this, and to perhaps reflect a little on our place in the natural world.