David

Sweet chestnuts, still ripening on their trees. The first picture is one of several which were scattered on the ground in Himley Plantation, all looking like a squirrel had taken one bite out of them and then rejected them as unripe.

Spider in the middle of its web, overhanging the canal at Compton.

Slime mould on one of thefallen trees in Himley Plantation.

A fallen log in the Woodland Trust’s Himley Plantation, the upper surface covered with moss. A crowd of small, stalked puffballs pushing through, fresh-looking despite some already having been nibbled.

Teazle seed head in close-up as the seeds were starting to ripen.

Robin’s pincushions, a gall which affects wild roses. In the past, I don’t remember ever seeing more than one or perhaps two of these brightly coloured growths on a single briar. This year, multiple infestations seem common. These were all on a single bush in the Barley Field blackthorn hedge – I gave up counting when I got to twenty.