May 28th – I set out on a sunny afternoon to pay a visit to Fazeley floating market, and on the way, hopped on the canal from Brownhills to Newtown to see if I could spot the Watermead swan family, just to see how they were doing.

I found them, unusually, near Anchor bridge; still six cygnets in umber and mum and dad still very, very attentive – but my, they’re growing – and they’ll soon be losing that characteristic fluffiness.

Nice to see the family prospering.