The tree in the foreground no longer exists. Less than a week after I took this picture from the window of my flat (see the Beetham Tower through the branches?) the tree was felled by the management because the roots threatened the stability of the block of flats. I'm not complaining, but I'm glad I recorded the last week of the tree's life, with buds and blossoms of spring showing. I was just struck by its beauty, I didn't know it was about to be felled.

Does anyone believe that trees go to heaven? Even though they are free of sin? (Or are they?) Not really, and yet we like to think that there is an afterlife for us sinful creatures. So does heaven not contain trees, and worms, and wasps? Are trees, worms and wasps more sinful than us?

Well then, let's assume that if there is a heaven, it contains those things too. And it must also contain germs and disease, by the same token. And it must therefore contain death. And so we realise that heaven is life, and is finite and imperfect.

Does it snow in heaven? Is it cold? If not, it would be boring. Would we like to live in the sunny, spider-infested, fly-infested Australian outback rather than here? Endless warmth, even endless comfort, is a barren desert. Contrast is life. That includes pain, suffering and loss.

People are only interesting because they are unpredictable. That is why we like meeting strangers. Once we know them, we grow bored. And they grow bored with us. At the end of the day, we only have ourselves on a permanent basis. No, on a temporary basis, thank goodness.

And no, it wasn't better when we were young. It is only better from other people's point of view. Only because they don't know everything.

Photographs and other disembodied versions of reality such as dreams and fantasies are better than the reality. This photograph is certainly better than the reality, now.