Category: David

Heron standing hunched by the shore of island on West Park lake, probably being watched by another one high in nearby tree (see previous post and last picture in this sequence).

Adult heron, a bird which can sometimes be seen on one of the islands on West Park lake, high in a willow on the island. It was spending some of the time peering intently downwards, possibly at another heron which was standing near the shoreline of the island, and preening vigorously.

Puffball fungus among the leaf litter on the ground of the wood at Himley Plantation recently.

Cotswold views from the path leading up to Dover’s Hill. Looking back down to the small market town of Chipping Campden, and along the scarp slope to where Broadway Tower marks a well-known outlook point.

Quinces, an old-fashioned fruit nowadays most likely to be represented in shops by the Spanish accompniment to cheese, membrillo. These were growing on trees in the orchard at Anne Hathaway’s cottage near Stratford on Avon, some ripening on the bough, some already rotting.

Dover’s Hill is one of the high points on the scarp slope of the Cotswolds. After a mile walk uphill from the small market town of Chipping Campden, the view opens out across the Severn and Avon valleys, otherwise known as the Vale of Evesham. The hundred and eighty degree panorama is bracketed by Cotswold outliers, Bredon Hill to the south and Meon Hill to the north. The long ridge of the Malverns marks the other edge of the Vale.

For anyone unwilling or unable to walk the perhaps a mile or a little more from Chipping Campden, there is even a National Trust car park, a hundred yards or so from the highest point on the hill.