Elephant feet in tree and other wonders of nature

While I was out walking the other day I came across a tree which appeared to have a pair of elephant feet hanging from it

I don't know what happened to the rest of the elephant but it reminded me of the joke....

How does an elephant get down from a tree?
It sits on a leaf and waits till autumn!


As I was about to climb over a gate I spotted something moving along the top, which on closer inspection turned out to be a small striped spider carrying a fly

Remember my year in a life of a tree?
Well on 6th May last year the tree looked like this

On the same day this year it looked like this

Spring has been so slow to arrive that the tree is still only in bud.  You'll notice that there's a different crop in the field.  Last year it was barley and this year it's oil seed rape.  The rape is flowering which is normal for this time of year but the plants are about half as high as they should be, and there's bare patches from where the field was stood in water for months earlier in the year.

I saw some some celandines

and cowslips

I think the lambs of these sheep look more like deer

The farm where they live have sheep in various colours