Author: David

Zooming in on the flower shows the darker lines which serve to guide pollinating insects onto their target.

From the same tree featured here.

A closer view of one blossom.

The first stage of development of the cones of an ornamental conifer.

Work will soon begin renovating East Park, thanks to a Heritage Lottery Fund grant. The striking clock tower in the distance above will once again be getting a clock.

The bandstand is currently in a sad state of disrepair.

Blooms on an impressive camellia bush by the lodge at the entrance.

The avenue of mature plane trees forms a tunnel even when their leaves are gone. This view looks back towards the lodge, which is pictured below.

And finally: to disprove my recent posts which have been talking about Danish scurvy grass as a plant which is spreading only in thin strips along busy roads, there was a patch several yards across in East Park.

Quite a number of bees were hovering on a bare patch of ground on a bank by the Staffs & Worcs canal – probably they had a nest there. This one stayed resting on a leaf, warming itself in the sun, long enough for me to grab a picture.

From a return visit to the patch of Danish scurvy grass on Seisdon village green. The picture below shows just how narrow a strip this grows on by the side of roads.

These violets grow on the same small stretch of sunny bank as the lesser celandines which were pictured yesterday. Every spring the two sets of plants flower at about the same time.

This web closely followed the lines of the twigs it was spun on. It showed up by the water which was condensing on it from the cold mist.

Lesser celandines flowering at a sheltered spot by the Staffs & Worcs canal. Both pictures were taken on cool, cloudy days, the bottom shot a couple of days before the other one.

Not actually wildlife, but the work which goes on to maintain the places we use where wildlife also thrives, here the canals.

All the lock gates on the British Waterways system are built at a workshop at the end of the Bradley arm of the Birmingham canal, which now leads only to that workshop, though it was on the original, Brindley, main line.

The workshop had an open day recently. These pictures were taken then.

The early morning mist was very dense: the tree was perhaps twenty yards away, with the canal directly behind it.