June 2nd – A grey, windy morning, but the temperature was rising. Running around on errands in the morning after the rain had stopped, I noticed all these wonderful wildflowers on one roadside verge neat Tipton.
There are all sorts here from common but beautiful daisies to oilseed rape, gone feral near the crash barrier.
It may have been a chilly, grey spring, but the flora is thriving, and I don’t think I’ve ever known a spring this lush and beautiful.
June 1st – Nearby on Clayhanger Common, beautiful, fragrant hot pink dog roses, looking scruffily beautiful in the rain.
On days like this, you take the beauty where and when you find it. And these are a delight.
June 1st – It may have been the first day of the meteorological summer, but it was cold, wet and blustery. Again.
Cheering me up in the gloom, though: Clayhanger’s latest family: seven Canada goose goslings, clearly very recently hatched. When I spotted them, they were scrambling to hop out of the overflow they’d been paddling in.
Mum and dad were very attentive and impressive parents, it has to be said.
May 31st – There’s living in that little face. Watching me from near Middleton Bridge, this inscrutable black puss was high on the embankment. A charming little cat, not moving o really acknowledging my presence at all.
Wonder what happened to the ear-tip? I bet there’s a story there…
May 31st – Must say, panorama mode on this thing seems decent too, if a little fiddly.
May 31st – A wolf of a day again – a heavy wind and wet morning, but bright sunshine in the afternoon made for a short ride and some familiar views to test the Nikon. The zoom is a lot more tricky to get right than the older camera, but it gives way better results, I have to say. Those shots of the Cathedral from Shire Oak and Hammerwich from Newtown are remarkable sharp for the range.
On the whole, the camera seems excellent, and most of my grumbles are with a particularly fiddly user interface, not inconsiderable weight and peculiar autofocus lag.
Oh, and terrible, terrible documentation. But on the other hand, wow!
May 30th – As is traditional on a day when you have a new camera to try out, the light was crap. It was dull and overcast and less than inspiring – but the views over the Brownhills and Shenstone countryside were green and lush.
That limpid-looking pool is a surface drainage lagoon for the M6 Toll. You’d never know to look at it.
May 30th – I have a new camera to try out. I usually use a Panasonic TZ70, but having used that brand for 8 years, I often try alternatives to see how they are when I get chance.
Courtesy of a generous friend, I’m currently using a Nikon S9900… and I rather like it. With similar ultra zoom performance, it seems a bit more solidly build, and I have to say, in most situations I’ve used it in, the camera has produced excellent images.
They seem a little vivid, but the macro mode is excellent, and much better than I’m used to, as I found when I tried it on various flowers.
I have this for a couple of weeks, so plenty of time to find the issues, I guess.
May 29th – I don’t know why, but I find these oak galls a bit horrible. They are distorted leaf buds, into which a wasp injects it’s egg and a chemical which causes the tree to grown the gall instead of a leaf stalk. The larva lives within the growth, feasting on it. When mature, the wasp eats it’s way out and the life cycle continues.
This tree on Clayhanger Common is peppered with these tumour-like galls – they look like fruit. The gall doesn’t harm the tree particularly, but it’s a very visible parasite.
there are many different types of gall wasp, all with different methods and growths. I’ve not seen this one before, and am unsure what it is specifically.
Nature can be very odd sometimes.
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