Category: David

Someone at Perton seems to be a member of the “crotchet covers for pillarboxes” movement, and their speciality seems to be seasonal festivals with the inclusion of 3-D animals.

Last year (I noticed it in December 2021 to be precise) a crotchet with a Christmas-card feel which included robins and a penguin. On a visit to the estate a few days ago, I pictured the latest offer. The recent Chinese new Year saw the start of the Year of the Rabbit. The centrepiece of the crotchet was indeed a rabbit, standing alongside one of the dragons which feature in Chinese New Year parades.

Shortly before January’s snow and ice all melted, scenes along the Smestow Valley. The canal from the canal bridge at Newbridge, and glimpsed between the girders of Meccano Bridge. Further along the Railway Walk, the path at level crossing leading to the Barley Field.

Turkey tail fungi are common, growing on dead wood: stumps and fallen trunks. Like many bracket fungi, they seem indiffefrent to extremes of temperature, and can be spotted at any time of year.

Growing on the same front garden wall, two mosses, both heavily frosted. One is grey-cushioned grimmia (Grimmia pulvinata). The other, forming a thick mat, may be cypress-leaved plait-moss (Hypnum cupressiforme).

The brittle remains of last years stem and seed heads of an umbellifer growing in the Paddock in sthe Smestow Valley Nature Reserve, outlined in frost on a cold January morning.

One of the West Park magpies hunting for food in an area of short grass. As the frosting of the grass hints, the soil was frozen solid. nevertheless, the ground wasn’t completely barren. The bird was managing to find something to eat.