Weekend readers' pictures: Maturity

Shirley Nicklin: “Childhood is short, maturity is for ever"
Photograph: Shirley Nicklin

Adam Akins: “An old English oak at Sycamore Gap along Hadrian’s Wall - ­definitely worth the three-hour drive"
Photograph: Adam Akins

Alan Cunningham: “The Tsavo elephant was close enough to the vehicle to ­emphasise its ancient, tree-like complexion, and looked wise enough to dispel fears that its apparent rage would culminate in our imminent demise”
Photograph: Alan Cunningham

John Malaiperuman: "This is a picture of my mother, Marjorie, in the place she likes best - her bed - with her favourite fruit - a ripe apple, which she can happily eat at the mature age of 99. She still has all her own teeth, having been brought up by a dentist father who taught her to brush her teeth after every meal, something which she has strictly observed all her life"
Photograph: John Malaiperuman

Andrea Roth: "Sitting on a grassy patch in a park, a friend picked this little flower. The contrast and yet fragile similarity appealed - new life in old hands"
Photograph: Andrea Roth

Philip Dunlop: "At the age of 90, my grandfather still cooks alone but he definitely doesn't eat alone. He was cooking for 12, the whole family, when I visited him in Singapore recently"
Photograph: Philip Dunlop

E Adams: "This was taken in my nana's 80th year. One minute she was stood having a cigarette, next minute she was flying past the window"
Photograph: E Adams

Rachel Thomas: "An ice hole on the Franz Joseph glacier in New Zealand. I was amazed, not just by the colours, but by how new and clean it looked, yet the glacier is said to date back to before 1859. As the glacier gets older and more mature the colours become more intense"
Photograph: Rachel Thomas

Patrick Walsh: "A woman sitting by her small street stall selling bangles in Turkey"
Photograph: Patrick Walsh

Janet Forward Powell: "My mother thought this tree was just asking for someone to step inside it and have their photo taken ... a picture of double maturity, I think!"
Photograph: Janet Forward Powell