Wolves Wild

Thistle flower bud, very spiky.

Ladybird, possibly a harlequin, on a nettle hunting the aphids which are also on the plant.

After yesterday’s shorn lambs, some which still had their wool and could have auditioned for the nursery rhyme. All this year’s at Northycote Farm are black sheep.

This one seemed determined to test out the old saying about the grass on the other side of the fence.

Meadow salsify, also known as Jack go to bed at noon, or as goat’s beard, is a common plant of hedgerows and meadows.

When it’s completely open, the flower looks like a slightly smaller version of a dandelion, on a longer and thinner stalk. It only opens for the morning – hence the going to bed at noon.

When I last passed Ram Hall on the edge of Berkswell the ewes and lambs of the farm’s sheep herd were been shorn. Those which had already lost their wool were already back in the field.

The farm makes “Berkswell” cheese from unpasturised sheepsmilk.

Bunch of hawthorn berries at the start of the process of formation.

Two different types of daddy-long-legs (cranefly), insects which sometimes fly inside during the warmer months.

These both came inside on the same day.

Tiny pale flowers contrasting with the dark red of the leaves of this striking garden bush.

White bull calf under the shade of a chestnut tree on a sunny morning.

Poppies growing densely at the edge of a field of oilseed rape by the traffic lights at Himley.

For the past couple of years, there were hardly any poppies flowering in the field. Three years ago it was different.

Pair of tiny ladybirds, possibly two-spot ladybirds, near the edge of a nettle leaf. I’m guessing that their activity indicates that one of them is male.

Southern marsh orchids growing in Baggeridge Country Park earlier this month.

The area where they were growing had seemed to be dry last year, but the ground was indeed soggy this time around.