Beautiful Beech Buds

Fagus sylvatica Riversii' aka stunning!

This is one of the new kids in the yard - my purple leaf beech!  I have loved beech trees for close to forever, just after I fell in love with elms.  The smooth grey bark, the deep purple leaves, and most of all the buds.  What could be more elegant than the pointed buds of beech?  These are not fast growing trees, but beeches are worth the patience.  They are extremely long lived and there are specimens hundreds of years old.  They are forest trees, especially in Europe. Beech forests occupy our earliest imaginings.  Red Riding Hood fled from the wolf in a beech forest.  Hansel and Gretel escaped the witch into the beech trees.  Couldn't those buds be claws or fingernails? I've sited this so we can see it daily from the back windows and it will eventually shade the patio.  Now, I visit it daily, just to touch those long pointed buds and dream a little fairy tale.