Patches of penicillin mould growing on the skin of a well-rotted apple. The rot had already reached the stage where there were small piles of pale blue spores below, shed from the mould.
Signs of spring: scarlet elf cup fungus, Newbridge
Fungus which sends out its fruiting bodies as winter is coming towards its end, scarlet elf cups are brightly coloured against the dead wood they grow on.
Signs of spring: silk tassel bush catkins
Catkins on a silk tassel bush (Garrya elliptica) reach their fullest extent as the first signs of the approaching spring begin to appear.
Velvet shank, just emerging
Velvet shank mushrooms, just emerging from a fallen branch by the Smestow Valley Railway Walk.
Aerial balance (carrion crows)
Two very alert carrion crows, balancing on a tv aerial as a lookout post.
Growing in a frozen pool, Kingsmead Marsh
I couldn’t get close enough for a clear inspection, but this looked like a lone clump of cotton grass growing in the pool at the end of the boardwalk on Kingsmead Marsh, Stafford.