David

https://www.flickr.com/photos/davea2007/7556581646

Carrion crow cleaning its feathers as it perches on a bare tree, looking down Richmond Road and across to Bantock Park.

This was the one sunny day in mid-July.

The crow’s feathers were wet as it preened itself to clean them. It must have come directly from bathing in one of the many puddles.

These pictures were taken in sequence. The bird didn’t seem to be taking any notice of me as I stood not far from the tree.

This poppy was growing on a pavement, right by a garden wall. Presumably it had escaped.

This fungus was growing from the junction between the pavement and the wall of a house on a side street near Chapel Ash.

Berberis berries now well on the way to ripening. The local spiders must have been very busy the day this picture was taken.

As the berberis berries ripen they turn first from yellow to a pale pinkish purple, then to a rich blue.

I couldn’t decide which of these three pictures I like best.

An impressive crop of berberis berries beginning to ripen. Today’s posts follow the stages of ripening in a hedge I pass as I go to the shops.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/davea2007/7535431762

This was growing in a paved-over front garden, so I wasn’t sure whether or not it had been deliberately planted, though the vivid red of the stem, leaves, etc., did rather suggest a cultivated variety.

Some of the flowers had yet to open; others had done so.

I presume the red-brown colour at the end of the individual parts of the flowers is the pollen, bane of hay fever sufferers.

I didn’t notice what the purple flowers in the background were.