Category: David

The West Park turtle, still looking fine after appearing in them lake at the start of lockdown, moving out of the water onto the log where it suns itself all day.

This summer’s (small) crop of mushrooms seem to be dowminated by boletes, and especially lurid boletes. That’s what I originally identified these as. Thanks to @lukaslarge and @ProjectWHYUK for correcting, this time they are iodine boletes.

They were growing right by the side of the footpath on the Railway Walk at Lower Penn.

Peacock butterfly and a lesser tortoiseshell on the same spike of flowers, each busily feeding with no regard to the other nearby.

Purple loosestrife, flowering at the height of summer. These were all in the conservation area at Baggeridge Country Park.

Damsons, seen just before they were ready for picking – some have since been picked and eaten. Fruit from the same tree at an earlier stage in the ripening process here.

Small group of brown birch boletes growing on a lawn recently. Some showing the lower surface of the caps, covered in pores rather than caps where the spores emerge.