David

A large bumble bee with a characteristic marking: all black until the orange end of the abdomen. There always seemed to be one or two of this species feeding whenever I looked at flowers during the hot spell in late March.

Clock tower without a clock; the sad current state of the East Park landmark. It is due to be returned to its former glory as part of the coming refurbishing of the park.

The flowers of a mallow with the light of the evening sun shining through it. The charms of this one were all the greater for sampling the wares of the pub in whose garden it was growing.

There seem to have been more ladybirds than usual this spring. This one was on an oak leaf which didn’t fall last year.

This wasp was totally focussed on exploring the camellia. The only thing which stopped me from moving in even closer was that my shadow started to intrude.

Wolverhampton was at the edge of the ice sheet in the most recent ice age. All across the city there are scatterings of these large boulders of rock originating as far north as the lake district or Scotland. One such set of boulders have been gathered together on the approach to Bushbury church. There are about twenty of them in the pile, set in cement.

Another is in the garden of Northycote Farm. Perhaps it was used as a mounting stone in former times.

The oldest surviving parts of St Mary’s, Bushbury (above) probably date from the 1300s, with St Peter’s in the city centre having bits that may be more than a century older.

But both have the remains of Saxon crosses which show the sites have a history of worship going back over a thousand years. The church at Penn also has the remains of a Saxon cross.

Flowers on the ends of twigs. The flowers come out before the leaves.

Three flowers from plants in a front garden.

Zooming in on the flower shows the darker lines which serve to guide pollinating insects onto their target.