David

The remains of plants of one of the taller umbellifer species, gone to seed. In this phase, the plants have an almost sculptural quality.

More from the garden of Anne Hathaway’s cottage, Shottery. Globe artichokes in flower, with glimpses of the thatched roof of the farmhouse in the background.

A bright red hollyhock flower in the garden of Anne Hathaway’s cottage in Shottery, one of the plants still in bloom early last month.

A pair of swans on the Avon just upstream from Stratford with their five cygnets, then settled ashore for the young birds to preen their downy feathers.

Growing in the River Avon by Lucy’s Mill footbridge, a yellow waterlily in flower.

Not a hornet (yesterday’s post) but a stingless and vegetarian hoverfly which has evolved to look like a hornet as a way of discouraging predators.