Summer is here, and the trees know it.

In Australia, trees don’t lose their leaves in winter – they lose their bark in summer. Well some do anyway.

The arrival of the first heat makes them shed their skins like snakes. And it’s just gorgeous.

It looks like the bark is slowly being burned off as it cracks, and then curls up at the edges, revealing a brand new, fresh, pale yellow skin underneath.

As the new skins cure in the heat and air, they ripple through an amazing colour spectrum of purples, greens and greys.

By February, the tress will have finished shedding their bark, and will have new skins that are so smooth, they look like twisting human bodies.

Today my kids and I collected some fallen bark. We drew on them, tumbled them together in a bowl and displayed them proudly on our shelf. I just love crafty nature projects.