Category: David

Flower bud on one of West Park’s rhododendron bushes, the leaves covered in the recent snow.

Full-grown velvet shanks growing at the same time and on the same tree as the smaller ones featured in the previous post.

They are popular with gatherers of wild food, as one of the few edible mushrooms which grow at this time of year. Something else has already been nibbling these.

Warning: do not pick and eat any fungi unless you are sure they are an edible species. Velvet shanks can be confused with poisonous sulfur tufts.

Velvet shanks are one of the few mushrooms which grow even in the depths of winter. They are found in clusters on tree trunks – usually dead or dying trees

These are only half-grown, They were on a tree near the Ranger Station in the Smestow Valley Nature Reserve earlier this month.

Woody nightshade berries: almost every berry in the bunch had a droplet of water which wasn’t quite big enough to pull off and fall to the ground.

This section of the Wren’s Nest Nature Reserve in Dudley looks like a deep valley.

Pictures taken looking along the “valley” in opposite directions show that the apparent valley floor rises at both ends. The feature must be a product of the extensive quarrying of the area.

The view upstream from Compton Lock, on the same wintry morning as this
prospect of Barley Field.