David

These mushrooms have turned black from their original yellowish colour, as seen here
in December.

After a cold night, the frost on these leaves was trapped on the downy growths on their surface.

This red admiral was sunbathing on a brick wall in the middle of November.

These were growing in the same short grass as yesterday’s mushroom.

The first picture is of a different individual: these are two views of the same toadstool. They and others which wer visible almost certainly sprang up from one connected network of fungus under the ground.

This tiny delicate mushroom was growing in cropped grass, its cap on a level with the ends of the grass leaves.

Barrow Hill in Pensnett is a fascinating local nature reserve run by Dudley council.

The former claypit at Tansey Green is outside the bounds of the reserve, and is now a privately-run fishing pool. The world’s earliest known three-dimensional fossils of conifers were found here. They were originally buried under ash from eruptions of the Barrow Hill volcano three hundred million year or so ago.

The fossil-containing layers on the site have now been re-covered with spoil from the claypit for preservation. Some of the excavated fossils can be seen in Dudley museum.

A stretch of the Pensnett railway walk, once the course of one of the many railway lines which criss-crossed the area serving the numerous mines and quarries. A stretch of the railway walk forms the western edge of the LNR.

The chimney is all that is left of one of the mines which used to be active in the area which is now the LNR. The distant view shows the land beyond, which continues to be working farmland to the present day.