PeterP

A single, dark brown acorn hangs between some autumnal oak leaves. The leaves are mostly bright green with spots of seasonal yellow and browns starting to appear. The acorn looks like it is about to fall and burst open, perhaps beginning the circle of life once more.

It was a lovely morning for a park walk today 🍂🍁 I hope you all have a great weekend when it arrives.

Here’s your free, Heart of Oak, seasonal desktop wallpaper 😁

#Nature #UKnature #Autumn #Fall #Acorns #ParkLife

A red beefsteak fungus sits in the centre of an old decaying tree stump, surrounded by green moss and brown, autumn leaf litter. The beefsteak is a range of reds from deep, dark red to vivid crimson. It shows signs of being nibbled by wildlife and is perfectly edible for humans.

'The Heart of the Forest'
It's a #MeatyMushroomMonday with this beefsteak fungus on an old tree stump.

It's a bit of a marmite fungus; many either think cool or eeew! 😆

#Fungi #Photography #Nature #UKnature #Woodland #Forest #Autumn #Fall

Touché 😉

A small group sulphur tuft mushrooms are tucked into the crevasses of a dead branch. The fungi have orangey caps with a veil of fluffy 'tuft' over them; one has been nibbled by wildlife and you can see the inner yellow flesh that gives these mushrooms their name. The blackened, decaying branch sits under a flush of green heather leaves as the signs of autumn march towards winter.

Are young Sulphur Tufts the cutest mushrooms ever? 😄

Although, can something be poisonous and cute? 🤷‍♂️

#Fungi #Autumn #Fall #Photography #Nature #UKnature #Mushrooms

A section of a dead tree trunk with a large 'Chicken of the woods' bracket fungus growing near the bottom, with its yellowy, frilled layers. Above the fungus is a section with no remaining tree bark and someone had stuck many bird feather into the cracks and crevices of the old tree. In the background are some green trees, with hints of them turning yellow as autumn approaches.

'Feathers & Fungi' I haven't tracked down the significance of the feathers yet, so if you know, please share 🙏
#FungiFriday #Autumn #Fall #Woodland #Feathers #Fungi #AwesomePhotography #Nature #UKNature

A young puppy rests in the green grass (but only for a second!). He is black and white with a soft fluffy coat and large floppy ears. The relative calm of his posture hides the boundless energy he normally shows.

The weekend is nigh! Here's a snap of our neighbour's new puppy to get you there 😍
#NarrowboatDogs #Puppy #Pets #PetPhotography

A partially eclipsed moon during a full lunar eclipse. The moon is rising over a marina of narrowboats in the foreground and slowly emerging from some low cloud cover. It is not long after sunset so there is still some colour in the boats and the trees around them.

The full Blood Moon was scuppered by clouds and treetops, so this will have to do 🙃

There’s another one next August, so plenty of time to practice!

#BloodMoon #Lunar #Eclipse #Astro #Photography #Landscape #UKcanals #Narrowboats

They’re also flying the Union Flag upside down 😔

Great shot! I loved my D7200 and still miss the crop factor having moved to full frame 🙃

Close up photo of a spider catching a bee in its web. The poor bee is already wrapped in a thin layer of web and the spider is approaching along a single strand of its web to carry the bee off for lunch! #CircleOfLife

Spider Alert! Scroll past now if you need to 🫣
#Wildlife #Nature #Photography #UkWildlife #CircleOfLife

Indeed 😆 We have several bags of cheap puppy pads; they worked wonders when our gearbox decided it didn't want to be full of oil anymore!

Happy birthday 🥳

A grey heron in a field of dry, yellowing summer grass. The breeze is ruffling its head feathers and one leg is lifted in anticipation of its next, careful step. There is a look of concentration in their eyes, possibly searching for a small mammal for lunch!

Happy Monday everyone; another week to enjoy 😃
Perhaps not for the small mammal this heron is stalking though! 🤣
#Birds #UKbirds #Wildlife #UKwildlife #Nature #Photography

‘On 7th September at 3pm there will be a national test of the Emergency Alerts service. Our concern at Refuge is for survivors that have hidden phones within the home, we are advising survivors to opt of receiving the alerts on their hidden device.’ From Refuge (UK). Please share widely

Ooh, what’s the story with Agnes I wonder 🧐 😀

😃

I can almost hear it 😆

🌵🐸🏜️

😁

🤣 I nearly put this myself!

A grey heron stands in a field of dried grasses, its mouth wide open as though shouting at someone of something. What might it be saying? ….

Caption competition! Tell me what this grey heron is saying. No politics, abuse, swearing or offensive comments please 🙏
#Birds #UKbirds #Wildlife #UKwildlife #Nature #Photography

We had to cancel our boat build because of COVID (sorry @ortomarine.bsky.social 😔) . This one was ready made for Crick show (cancelled) and was 90% the same spec as our build so we bought it instead.

We did. We knew it was going to be Heart of Oak before we launched, but covid put paid to our sign-writing for a few months. Champagne on the bow at launch was our only tradition, but more in the glasses! 😁

Five years ago yesterday, we launched narrowboat unnamed! Five years later after almost 2000 miles, as many locks and only one breakdown, one of us is a ‘real boater’ (splash!) and NB Heart of Oak is still keeping us safe and warm, often in the middle of nowhere 😁
#UKcanals #Narrowboats

A picture of the canal basin at Stourport, UK. The water is a vicious green, covered by large patches of duckweed. You can see an old wharf building, now a chandlers, in the foreground and some moored boats in the background. The summer sky is cloudy with patches of blue.

🎶Sweet dreams are made of green 🎶
CRT have put a lot of effort into clearing the Stourport duckweed, but I like the look of green canals; it brings some colour to an otherwise grey July 😁

I know it can be bad for other aquatic plant life, but imagine how big the ducks will be next year!
#UKcanals

Six fluffy, grey mute swan cygnets on the Shropshire Union canal. Some have their heads tucked in sleeping and the one in the centre has its head at a quizzical angle as if to ask what I’m doing with that camera!

Whichever way you look at it, this world can be a crazy place! Hopefully not for these fluffies though 😁
#UKcanals #Birds #Swans #Cyngets #Wildlife #Nature

Certainly feels like more than last year in our cruising area, but could just be relative perception. Aside from the closures, we’ve had to coast past more than a few that are partially blocking one side of the canal.

For those not aware, there has been a high incidence of fallen trees along the canals this year, including one that fell onto a moving narrowboat! Here’s one we got stuck behind for 24Hrs a couple of weeks ago. Hats off to Canal & River Trust and contractors who made it passable in those 24Hrs 👍

Bingo! 😂

A canal runs through an avenue of green trees in full, vibrant summer colours. A grass towpath runs alongside the canal and a single narrowboat is moored towards the far end of the picture. The canal water is dotted with patches of green duckweed and reflecting the many trees.

We’ve discovered some “pure green” 😁
Not sure I’d moor so close to so many large trees in the current climate though 🤔
Staffs & Worcs canal.
#UKcanals #Narrowboats #Landscape #Nature