Facing the field and the burn there is a line of horse chestnut and copper beech, the contrast in their foliage is striking in summer. For now the sticky buds of the chestnut have split to reveal their leaves which currently look like miniature palm trees. Against the browns in the woodland space the new shoots are a vibrant green.

The tree produces a sticky resin which protects the fragile scales of the bud. The resin gums up insects, immobilising those who would have feasted on the prominent buds. The young leaves that emerge are covered in downy white hairs which have protected them during the winter months. As the leaves expand they shed this furry coat. The floral spikes also emerge with the new leaves but they will not reach their spectacular bloom until mid to late May.

Behind the trees' opulent silhouette and rich foliage (sprouting at top of page) there lies a devastating disease. Many of our British specimens are suffering from 'bleeding cankers'. This disorder occurs both on the trunk and sometimes on the scaffold branches, and can attack trees of all ages.

First recorded in Britain in the 1970s, the disease was believed to be caused by a fungal pathogen named Phytophthora. More recent studies have shown that the culprit is Pseudomonas syringae. What actually happens is that the canker weeps a liquid which destroys the bark. If you destroy enough of a tree's bark it will die. The bark is like our skin, it protects the life-giving functions which exist mainly in the cambium layer underneath the bark.

I noted from the map of affected trees around Britain that the disease is more prevalent in England. However, the map on its own gives an unfair bias because the reality is that there are 432,000 horse chestnuts in England and only 29,000 in Scotland. I looked at more of the data presented on the Forestry Commission's website. They had a table comparing affected trees in urban and rural areas. In Scotland, 50 per cent of horse chestnuts in urban areas are diseased.

I spoke to Simon Wilkinson, tree officer for Scottish Borders Council, about this phenomenon.

He told me: "The figures are not really drawing a true picture of the current situation. One of the reasons for this is that many more trees have been surveyed in urban areas than in rural areas.

"Trees in rural areas do not tend to suffer like those in urban areas, so the results may be misleading."

Looking at the old horse chestnuts in my secret wood, with their majestic scaly barks and their many-curved branches that drape the crown, I can rest easy for the present. They make a wonderful collection in all seasons and I am enjoying their present rebirth under the sun, or more appropriately the spring showers. I am sure they will bloom and die each year long after I am gone as they have done long before I came into existence.