The summer has been so wet that it would be hard to get many pictures without going out on rainy days. At least that makes it easier to find spider’s webs showing up because of the water drops hanging from them. The web was in Barley Field recently.
This used to be the main path across the Barley Field in Smestow Valley Nature Reserve. Compton Park (behind the hedge) started to be redeveloped in the spring. Now the grass is taking over the path.
The red-cracking bolete was growing on a lawn I pass when I am walking into the city centre.
Angelica is most often seen as green strips used to decorate cakes. This is made by candying slices of the stem. It would seem that the seeds, seen ripening here, can also be eaten – for example in pastry.
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.
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.
