A spider’s web, anchored on the branches of a bramble, and weighed down with overnight rain.
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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.
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Stratford interlude – Medlar
This fruit was ripening on a tree in one of the riverside parks in Stratford recently.
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Butterfly on the wall
Video of a red admiral butterfly spreading its wings on a sunny wall trying to warm itself, and having a struggle to hold on in the autumn breeze.
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Wrens Nest quarried valley
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.
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Wrens Nest fossil beach
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.
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Another uninvited guest
Actually, almost certainly the same uninvited guest which already featured in a video here.
This female squirrel, which may have only recently had young, scoops up all the food left for the birds again. As she heads off, she leaves behind a small puddle, presumably as a territorial marker.
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.
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Stratford interlude: fungi
The dryer than usual autumn has been bad for fungi, which normally peak at this time of year. My recent brief visit to Stratford upon Avon and vicinity was at least somewhat more productive than it has been in and around Wolverhampton.
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Stratford interlude: autumn leaves
A tree of heaven reflected in the Stratford canal, and leaves of a maple in a hedge by the Shottery brook, one of many such trees in the Stratford area.
