David

A rustic sailor beetle. This one was resting on an alkanet leaf by the Severn at Shrewsbury. There were several insects on each leaf of the plant, most of them mayflies.

The flowers of horse chestnut trees. Normally (off-)white, but trees with red ones much prized by some. These were on a tree growing by the Severn, in the churchyard at Atcham.

A female goosander leads her small brood, a mere two ducklings, upstream on the Severn at Atcham in pouring rain. Just a few shots caught before the birds swam under the old and new road bridges.

Lily pad, when its leaf had only risen to the surface of the water and spread.

This was one of the plants growing in Old Nursery Pond.

River Severn at Shrewsbury, towards the end of May. A slightly warmer day, and the air above the river was tick with mayflies.

They formed clouds over the water. They were still swirling around in clouds across our third storey hotel window, across the road from the river.

They were settling on riverside vegetation. They were settling on the orientation boards by the riverside footpath.

Some even made it into our hotel room.

Ribwort plantain. A garden weed, and, like many garden weeds, considerred to have medicinal properties by those who go in for herbal cures.