David

All Saints Church, Stratford on Avon, promoted for tourism as “Shakespeare’s church” (he was both christened and buried here) has a churchyard with a frontage on the river bank and lots of mature trees. This hollyhock had flowers which harmonised with the colours of the stone in the church itself.

Right by canal lock lower gates often seems to be a good spot for plants to take root. Here, the bottom gate of the Stratford Canal leads from the canal basin to the Avon, with Mexican fleabane spreading down the wall nearby

Thirty or so adult swans crowd together on the Avon at Stratford, being fed by children above. On the edge of the crowd or nearby are a few Canada geese and mallards, and the group of cygnets in the previous post.

Pretty much all day, every day in Stratford on Avon, there’s a mob of birds on the river directly below Bancroft Gardens, fighting to get the bread or more healthy food thrown by visitors.

Most of the mob are adult swans, though a few of the geese and the mallards manage to squeeze into gaps.

Here, a group of juvenile swans were on the edge of the crowd. Their feathers show them as this year’s hatchlings, but now grown to more or less full size. They kept together, so are likely siblings.

Swan parents usually keep a close eye on their offspring until they are themselves grown up and ready to be shooed off to make a life of their own. Perhaps the adults were somewhere in the main crowd.

Mulberries ripening on a mature tree in the front yard of the Dirty Duck / Black Swan inn by the river in Stratford on Avon.

Anyone who fancies a drink while gazing at the river and the passing tourists needs to take care. The tree’s contorted trunk makes a low arch over the way to some of the tables.

Even more hazardous: the fruit ripening season is a long one, all through the warmer summer months. Once ripe, the squishy fruit drop without warning, leaving deep, dark stains which might just be removable if they are treated at once.

Bancroft Gardens in Stratford on Avon lies between the canal basin, the river and the RSC theatre. Along the roadside edge of the open space, there’s a row of American sweetgum trees, a species of liquidambar. They make their most striking effect in the autumn, when the leaves change to a range of vivid colours. Most striking recently was these spiky balls. Are they fruit or nuts?