Tentatively, I brought out various works from my portfolio – gaudy orchids, garden flowers and even my ‘complex composition’ with its pink Cyclamen, of which I was quite proud.

There was little reaction. So I fumbled about looking for a painting of a native tree, Betula pendula, which was my choice for a module throughout our first year. I knew it was ‘correct’ but always thought it too analytical to hang on most walls. In this case I was wrong. I was showing my work to an accountant who was now developing his parkland in Norfolk with a mixture of native and ornamental trees.

His eyes lit up, and he asked if I could paint for him five of his most treasured trees, analytically, but with an eye towards a beautiful composition. For the past year I have had the pleasure of dipping in and out of his ‘arboretum’ at various times of the year. His friendly gardener is always ready to alert me to developments (I live an hour’s drive away), and to cut material for me.

We have agreed on painting Halesia carolina, Malus ‘Butterball’, Euonymus europaeus ‘Red Cascade’, Sorbus cashmiriana and Acer ‘Freemanii’. This last proved a problem in that it’s usually sterile in the UK, so I’ve decided to introduce the leaves and the samara of its parents, the Red Maple (Acer rubrum) and the Silver Maple (Acer saccharinum) as ‘parts’ to match those of the other trees. A rare visit to family in Ottawa alerted me to the fact that many Maples set their seed early in the season, so, in the autumn, there were none. Staff, however, at the wonderful Dominion Arboretum, which is Canada’s main agricultural research institute, and contains almost all known Acer species, could not have been more helpful and made dried material available for me to draw.

We are nearly done. And I have my little Birch Tree to thank for a fascinating year.