Misty Morning

Having deferred my foray from yesterday, I set off at dawn this morning . The sunrise was glorious, but as I approached Fox House, the cloud descended. However, the damp in the air gave the day a real autumnal feel and there were some interesting light effects as the sun struggled with the low cloud for ascendancy. Within 15 minutes of parking the car near Sir William Hill, I had found 4 ceps and a good collection of hedgehog fungi, saffron milk caps and meadow wax caps. Other fungi included brown birch bolete, blusher, snowy wax caps, fly agaric and brown roll rim. On the bird front, I saw wren, meadow pipit and siskins. Next week I'll be out with friends, so I'm hoping for good weather and a good show of edible mushrooms.

Not quite autumn.

This morning's walk near Grenoside was a little disapponting on the fungi front. I found a few bay boletes and that was it for edible species. A couple of stinkhorns - "before " and "after" and a few russulae were the only other things spotted. On the bird front, I managed a photo of a wren, and spotted a jay. I also heard a woodpecker, along with a few other tantalising bird calls that I was, of course, unable to identify. The leaves are only just thinking about turning and the grass and other plants are past their summer flush, but not yet ready to die down.

Summer's end

It's a glorious Indian Summer, and today was the perfect day to go out early on a foray. There were plenty of mushrooms about, although the haul of edibles was relatively small there were some quality finds including these chanterelles, some saffron milk caps and hedgehog fungi, charcoal burners, larch boletes and a small orange birch bolete. I also found a large beefsteak fungus but it was past its best, and I'm not really a fan. I had hoped for some ceps or at least some bay boletes, but no joy. One of my usual spots for field mushrooms had been left ungrazed and had become overgrown so even if the mushrooms were there, it was impossible to see them. Other fungi seen include laccaria amethystea, amanita rubescens and fulva. I saw plenty of birds as well. Amongst those I could identify were goldfinch, and green woodpecker.

Suffolk

It seems an age since we returned from a brilliant

2 weeks in Suffolk. Fabulous cottage, wall to wall sunshine, and great scenery and wildlife. Birds, especially marsh harriers, deer - roe and muntjac, butterflies and most notably dragonflies. The air was alive with them

The cottage was on Aldringham Common so there were lots of walks from the doorstep - to Thorpeness, Aldburgh, Sizewell beach, Minsmere and Dunwich Heath. Also not far away was Southwold, Dunwich and Orford, and Tunstall and Rendlesham forests.

Since returning, it's been back to work. We came home to masses of plums and apples, so there's been lots of jam-making and such going on. The dehydrator came out of storage today, and it's high time the seasonal mushroom forays began. Some decent weather would be nice. Still in the process of uploading holiday photos onto flikr - there are so many to sort through.