Old man’s beard with the feathery “hairs” of some seeds whitened even more than normal by a coating of frost.
Approaching Aldersley Junction
View over the partly-frozen Birmingham Canal towards the bottom lock.
The trees beyond the bridge are on the far side of the Staffs & Worcs Canal towpath.
Autumn leaves: Wightwick Manor
These vivid autumnal leaves were on bushes by the lawn at Wightwick Manor.
As so often in the pictures this year, there were the remains of water after recent rain.
Clump of chocolate-coloured mushrooms
This clump of mushrooms had skins which were almost the same colour as chocolate.
They were growing on an island in the middle of a road.
Boats on a frosty canal
Two narrowboats moored near Compton Lock on a frosty morning recently.
Mastadon, though not the Santas on its roof, can just about be seen behind the boat with the penguin figurehead and shark decoration.
Orange peel fungus, 2012
A fungus which does look remarkably like pieces of discarded orange peel.
There’s a crop of them every autumn around the base of one of the trees very near the Conservatory in West Park.
This year, the “pieces of peel” (the fungus’s fruiting bodies) were smaller and more numerous than normal.
Flowering by a canal, mid-November
A plant still flowering right on the edge of the canal at Wightwick a month ago.
Small mushroom with pleated cap
A delicate mushroom lurking in the short grass by the canal towpath near Castlecroft.
Autumn leaves and peeling bark
The leaves of a bush in a front garden had turned a mixture of vivid reds and yellows.
The bark of the trunk was peeling in a complex pattern.
There was even a deep blue sky – rare enough this year.
