Fabulous Fungi

It was forecast that this year's weather pattern, damp with a long hot dry summer, would produce a bumper crop of fungi and how right they were.  I have never seen as many fruiting at the same time and they lined faint paths that run through Angerton Moss, a peatland habitat.

One that is always easy to recognise, Fly Agaric, but these were the biggest I've ever seen they must have measured 8 inches across and looking them up in the fungus guide it says they can grow from 6-20cm so these

must be at their maximum size.

Here is one in decay looking like a mound of couscous,  a small and shiny new one can be seen peeping though under the grass on the left

There were hundreds of these, Collybia cirrhata, which grow out of dead black fungi. They varied in size from little specks to these and also varied in

numbers growing together. Other fungi grew among the grass but I could not identify them

apart from being intrigued by their curious shape, small

and large.

Some looked familiar, this possibly is a species of mycena.

I couldn't resist taking a picture of these crab apples in the water just because they could be like my blog name - a raft of apples (although the title is taken from a poem)

Apples, like the fungi, are having a good year in 2018 although crab apples and the fungi I have photographed are not recommended for eating.   In praise of the crab apple I did once make a rather tasty white wine from them but its tastiness faded with age. Not a wine for laying down in ones imaginary cellar.

Autumn Display

I saw this artistic autumn display at the Beetham Garden Centre back in October and couldn't resist a photograph.  Now I'm wishing I'd taken some pictures of the mounds and varieties of the new season English apples on display nearby to complete this entry, it was an apple lovers delight.  This was our last stop on a round of garden centres looking for a particular plant. I'm easily diverted in a 'oh look pretty plant' type of buying but my companion was on a mission for a type of camellia. We called it a day here as the Beetham Garden Centre, their tea shop was calling. 

We'd had no success here earlier in the day, this is the giant Hayes Garden Centre in Ambleside which is Christmas decorations central in autumn so the crowds were inside, it was rather peaceful out here among the plants, just the splashing of the fountain.  It was interesting to see that the globe view is a version of McArthur’s Universal Corrective Map with Australia on the top, no longer down under.

While looking back to autumn in winter thoughts turn to spring 

Camellia japonica 'Sacco Vera' (CC Andrea Moro, Dept of Life Science, Trieste University)

An entry to ABC Wednesday, a journey through the alphabet, this week sojourning at A here

Fair Weather

Cirrus

Duddon valley Nr Broughton in Furness

Sunshine and fluffy cotton wool cumulus, the perfect day for a walk through Autumn.

See the world's skies at SkyWatch Friday

Peek A Boo

 

Waiting for the sun to reappear... 

 

Ah here it comes, turn and click the picture. 

An entry to Skywatch Fridays around the world.

ABC Wednesday - Nature Walk

Nature and the rhythm of the year as autumn turns. The late flowers are on their final flush, the roses

bloom in perfection for the final time, while the pampas grass arrives and shoots for the sky, its fonds float in the breeze, what care they that there will be winds in November, ha, they say, we laugh in the face of wind and will bend, this is our time.

Berries are in profusion in hedgerows, nuts are falling from the trees, birds are spoilt for choice

 although sometimes it is easer to eat nuts already shelled.

The Leven River at its tidal end with sandy banks at the time of this month's neap tide, the least rise and fall of the lunar month.  This short river drains much of the nearby woods, this is a very nemorous area, (no the spell check could not cope with nemorous, it means wooded).

I love a duck-board and this one makes a very wet patch of wood navigable without the mud oozing over shoes.  My companion, the mud-hound, having managed over the last few weeks to be as one with mud completed this walk almost totally dry.

The fascinating fungi love the damp of an autumn wood, I do not know enough about them to name this one but possibly as there were dozens of them growing on a fallen tree from its shape it is a  type of Paxilllus.

The 'name of the game' is ABC Wednesday nip over to see more words starting with N

ABC Wednesday - Japanese Garden

The start of the entrance path to the Japanese Garden at Tatton Park, Cheshire. 

This garden was the result of a visit to the Anglo-Japanese exhibition at White City, London in 1910 which enthused many for this garden art.  A team of Japanese workers were employed and arrived at Tatton Park with, it is said, Shinto shrines and artefacts from Japan.

There are three main types of Japanese gardens, Hill, Dry (sometimes known as Zen) and Tea. This one is built in the style of a Tea Garden which do not tend to the strict discipline of other two Japanese Gardens but this one of course also has western influences

such as Acers/Maples which possibly do not appear in this type of garden in Japan. The first signs of Autumn had just appeared when we visited on Friday.

Lanterns come in all shapes and sizes and have different functions

some are built to trap as much snow as possible so the scene looks beautiful in the winter. I would imagine the juxtaposition of  lantern and bridge covered in snow, perhaps the water iced over, would be wonderful.

A pond in a Japanese Garden of course always reminds of Basho's famous haiku:

The old pond

A frog jumps in

Sound of Water 

(Basho)

my mind was still

till Basho's frog

made it ripple

(Wm Flygare)

But where does this bridge lead?  In a traditional Tea Garden there would be stepping stones, and it would take you to

 the Tea House.  A stone lantern and a stone basin were placed where guests would purify themselves before participating in the  tea ceremony.  The aim of the Chaniwa (tea garden) designer is to create a feeling of solitude and detachment from the world, the latter being an element of Zen Buddhism.  These type of gardens in Japan are not typically open to the public

which by coincidence is similar to this one. I'm standing at the perimeter, on a rock, on tip toes here.  If we had arrived on a Wednesday or Sunday then there are organised visits and maybe I could have walked over the bridge to the Tea House.

or gazed at the cranes. A bird of happiness and in legend they live to be a 1000 years old, possibly why Japanese poems about them seem to be mainly set in the spring

Shower of white

plum blossoms -

where are the cranes?

(Basho)

But Kobayshi Issa plays on legendary longevity in his haiku

Even tortoise and cranes

meet their fate

autumn evening.

We are having some lovely warm weather at the moment, perfect for visiting gardens and taking walks in the countryside as it turns colour, but despite this I could not resist ending with another of Basho's haiku

Lips too chilled

for prattle -

autumn wind.

Jump over to ABC Wednesday and just see how many words start with J

Sloe Walk

Had a lovely walk in the Rusland Valley yesterday with the additional treat of coming across this blackthorn bush which was laded with sloes. It looks a very old bush as it is covered with moss and abundant grey lichen, which I think is the shrubby Ramalina farinacea. The lichen indicates good air quality round here and as it is near a place called Windy Hall this certainly indicates a lot of fresh air. I don't think last year was a good year for sloes as the ones we can across were poor specimens. This year they are plump. Plastic bag out and we gathered about a pound, which left loads left on the tree for anyone else with a desire to make Sloe Gin.

The temperature this week can only be described a balmy, a wonderfully warm autumn. (This time last year it had snowed). The air was still and the breeze crackled the dry leaves on the trees as we walk through the woods. The birds sang and the sparse late flowers felt as though they were wishing us goodbye for the year.
A profusion of Scarlet Hood (Hygrophorus coccineus) greeted us as we walked through the fields towards the end of the walk. These fungi like to grow in grass and the cap fades to yellow as it ages. You can just see the yellow edges on these ones.
What of the sloes we picked. Today I bought a bottle of gin, pricked the juicy sloes, put them in the gin and added the sugar. Now I turn the bottle every day and wait. I knew someone who used to put the bottle under her bed and the last thing she did before she went to bed was turn it. One way of remembering to keep turning the bottle.