Day 1..........Autumn

Not sure if I will be able to find enough of interest to manage a daily blog throughout November, which is what an blogging buddy has suggested. We had such a lovely community back in the days when I seemed to have plenty to say for myself. I cannot believe it was 7 years ago that I first started, what was to be a daily diary.  For several years I did manage to write daily...so how difficult will it be to manage just one month....well time will tell!!!!

Halloween was a damp squid... I got my tin of goodies ready and we didn't even get one visitor!!!!!

 A couple of weeks back as the temperature began to fall I noticed a lot of ladybirds scurrying about in the garden and when I looked closely I also noticed different marking

Embee even brought one indoors  somehow it got onto his head and  tickled his bald patch ending up on his crossword!!!

Autumn is also the time for fungi  found this in one of my flower tubs

I am keen to know what type of spider this is, found it trying to get in through the kitchen door. So if anyone can help I will be grateful.

Fungi Forage

You might remember a couple of weeks back I mentioned I went on fungi foraging. This was an organised walk and I enjoyed it so much I was planning on going again to a different area. Unfortunately I missed this second walk, the friend I was going with went away and I got caught up with other things so I'm just going to show you what I saw on that first walk.
This guy, Justin Smith is a mycologist (fungi expert) and he told us what we were looking at. He does lots of talks and research and as one would expect the proper names for all the fungi just roll off his tongue. I didn't even try and remember them and in any case most had common names which, of course, I've already forgotten and did I think to take a pen with me~ no how stupid!
Roger Phillips has has produced a number of books over the past 25 years and he has a very good website where you can learn more about the interesting fungi you might find where you live.
The top ones I do recall are Shaggy Incaps and they are poisonous. The fungi in the bottom left picture can be eaten and my friend took them home. We saw lots of clumps of the brown fungus.

The bottom left picture shows fungi called 'King Arthur's Cakes' named because of the legend. These are very hard and can be used for burning.



The pink one I think might be edible and has an odd smell. You might just be able to see some of the spores in the photo on the left

Here is some Jelly Ear fungus (name self explanatory) which is cultivated and widely used in parts of Asia. It's apparently quite chewy and no I didn't try it. The other photo has a little nut hidden in the end of a tree stump, we decided this was the work of a squirrel.

The red fungus was the most unusual (apparently) and was the last one we found right at the end of the walk, unfortunately I could not get a very good photo as it was nestling in the bottom of a tree and I didn't fancy lying on the ground!

This last picture is fungi that I found a few days after the walk growing by the wall just outside my house. We also had a few stray ones growing in the lawn.

It was a very interesting walk and I really wish I had been better prepared to take notes, maybe next year! Anyway hope you enjoy seeing the photos.

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November 6th 2006: Echo Lake