Author: David

The first bluebells are starting to come out. I spotted these early yesterday morning.

The sticky buds of the horse chestnut are unmistakable.

The large buds on the end of the branch are flowers. The compact bud further back, by the scar of attachment of last year’s leaf, will develop into a leaf.

Delicate blue lungwort flowers. The name lungwort comes from the markings on the leaves, which were thought to symbolise infected lungs. The plants were used as a herbal “cure” for respiratory problems.

Former marker stone (?) now used as base of lamppost, Bradley, near Stafford.

At the back of Claverley church.

Lichen on gravestone: Bradley

This is the junction of the Staffs & Worcs canal with the Trent and Mersey Canal. A little further north and east the river Sow joins the river Trent. A little further yet, the Trent and Mersey canal also joins the river Trent.

Junction between the main line of the Walsall canal and the town arm, which bears off towards the right of the picture for its short stretch to the basin which now provides the setting for Walsall Art Gallery.