David

These bright velvet shank mushrooms and the crowd of small whitish brackets were growing on a felled tree trunk in the grassy area between the Perton estate and Wightwick.

This year’s new leaf growth on this thistle is both spiky and downy.

I was struck by the paint of the industrial building, reflected in the canal, looked like a too-perfect blue sky on what was actually a gloomy grey day.

The picture was taken with my back to the remnant of the Bradley Arm which goes off from the main line here. The Arm, currently a dead end, was Brindley’s original line of the canal.

Snowdrops, and purple crocuses somewhat further away, taken a few days ago.

A pair of swans feeding by a reed bed on the Birmingham canal in Deepfields. The traffic on the bridge carrying the Black Country Route was rumbling nearby.

This hawthorn, growing by the side of the Staffs & Worcs canal near Compton, is shaped as formerly part of a waterside hedge.

This appears to be a ball of moss growing on a hawthorn bush. Is it a birds’ nest?

The profusion of catkins on this hazel looked like a waterfall or pouring rain.

This huge rock was brought to Wolverhampton from north Wales by glaciers during the Ice Age. It was discovered in Oak Street, and put up in West Park in 1881. The face pointing into the prevailing wind and rain is now covered in lichen.