Wren's Nest

Moving day, we were packed and away by 9.45 and had time to play before taking up residence in Worcestershire.

First a rather superficial visit to Wren's Nest, a limestone outcrop. It was formed around 420 million years ago as deposits in warm, shallow seas nearer the equator. Land mass movement raised the seabed which became folded such that the layers became tilted. More significantly, the quantity and variety of fossils contained is so great that Wren's Nest has been designated one of the Black Country Geoparks.  Visitors are encouraged to look among the loose rocks for fossils, hoping for trilobites, crinoids, corals and gastropods worthy of a collection but more likely finding lumpy rock with unidentified or broken shapes. At least, that's all we found.

In the photo, from left to right covers around one km, the quarry area is fenced off out of shot to the left.

With little time to linger further we continued our journey, stopping by chance by the ruined St James Priory and the Park, where we ate our picnic lunch beside a somewhat neglected physic garden, with herbs planted in box-lined beds. The flowers attract a variety of insects -  dragonfly, damselfly, a wall butterfly among them. A stroll round the nearby ornamental pond confirmed a need for attention, with so little water. But the park is large and clearly popular in the pleasant sunshine. 

All too soon we had to resume our journey but arrived safely at our abode for the week, a cottage on a working farm from which we'll explore the area.