David

Cones on different trees.

A group of rooks gathering in the treetops.

A spider’s web, anchored on the branches of a bramble, and weighed down with overnight rain.

A collection of decorative elements visible on streets in and around Stratford on vaguely wildlife or animal themes.

The web doorknocker with its spider is on the side door of a restaurant on Sheep Street. The wooden web looks like a later addition to the knocker.

One of the old fashioned lamps near to the Theatre building is decorated with this lively carving of an owl. Not pictured here are the other carvings, of Bottom playing a lute, and the fiddler on the roof.

The duck and ducklings (Welford upon Avon) and the cats squaring up for a fight (Weston upon Avon) are the most striking of the makers marks on the ridges of thatched roofs in nearby villages.

Finally, another doorknocker. This time, it is in the form of an elegant swan on a door in Shottery.

This fruit was ripening on a tree in one of the riverside parks in Stratford recently.

This deep valley on the Wren’s Nest reserve is entirely the product of human activity. It has been quarried out of the hill.

The picture has been digitally manipulated to erase a discarded crisp packet which I originally failed to notice among the leaf litter.

Millions of years ago, a tide went out and left this ripple pattern on a beach. It’s now to be seen, uptilted, on the Wren’s Nest National Nature Reserve in Dudley.

Closer views showing the ripple patterns on more than one level. At least one complete beach level has fallen off in the decades since I made the first of my occasional visits to the reserve.

The view looking at the side of the hill with these fossil beaches. Hopefully, there are still many more to be revealed in turn.

The ghostly white streaks to the left and right of the reflection of the church tower are swans. They started to move off when they realized I didn’t have any food for them.