David

A mass of blooms on this clump of feverfew which was growing by the towpath of the Stourbridge canal.

The eyes are markings on the thorax.

An aphid is sneaking behind the ladybird, avoiding becoming a meal

Dudley: wherever there is a patch of grass, a horse will be grazing. These all had their little territories within the Buckpool and Fens Pool LNR.

The climbing plant which creates a tangle with other vegetation and which seems to get everywhere.

Built about 1600, this is one of the oldest buildings within Wolverhampton’s city limits.

It’s now owned by the city council, and run as a country park and nature reserve. There are old species of pigs, cows, sheep, turkeys, chickens, ducks and geese as well as extensive parkland, woodland and pasture.

There are also picnic areas, and tea rooms which always seem to be well patronised.

This coot was at home at the northern end of the Stourbridge canal, not far from where the canal peters out.

A six hundred yard stretch of the Staffs & Worcs canal passes through a cutting quarried out of the hard Bromsgrove (Keuper) sandstone. To minimise the work, the cut is only wide enough for a single boat, except at a couple of passing places.

The higher cut on the bank opposite the towpath shows a distinct layering in the types of vegetation which manage to cling on to the small cliff face the cut has created.

The Shropshire Union canal has its southern end at Autherley Junction, where it meets the earlier Staffs & Worcs canal. The owners of the Staffs & Worcs opposed the new canal as liable to drain the water from their summit level. Hence this lock being built, even though the water level is the same in the pounds on either side of the lock.

Beyond the lock the brightly-coloured narrowboats are some of the fleet of Napton narrowboats.

The tollhouse of the Shropshire Union, with attached cottage, seen from across the same lock.

These lupins were growing wild in a grassy field between the Birmingham canal and Oxley Sidings.

Although it was the very start of June, the development of some of the seed-pods was already well advanced.