Tag: fungi

Autumn fungi

October, one of my favourite months for photography, with the autumnal carnival of colour preparing it’s annual show.
It is not just the foliage that attracts me to local woodlands at this time of year, there is also the hunt for the varied species of fungi to be be found around fallen trees and among the decaying leaves on the woodlands floor.

Each autumn I keep meaning to educate myself to become more familiar with the names of the various fungi, but today I step into the woodland just as uneducated as the previous year, apart from the knowledge of the elusive fly agaric, that red and white fairy tale toadstool, to me, the holy grail of the fungi kingdom.

Without doubt, my walk here today was one of the most productive in terms of finding my subject matter, the recent rain and mild conditions, a perfect storm for these often strange but beautiful gems of the woodland, perhaps next year will be the year I finally identify each and every one.

A welcome return to Dartmoor

It has been four long months since I last visited Dartmoor, a trip to Wistmans wood in March, just a few days before lockdown restrictions were put in place.
Realising that such measures were likely, I made sure to savour every step of that March outing, unsure of when I may visit again.

That day was yesterday, to say I was looking forward to it would be an understatement, I could not wait to tread once more amongst the vast openness, to hear the sweet summer sounds of the skylarks soaring above, to gaze in awe at the many tors, stone sentinels of the moorland landscape.

The rain from earlier in the morning had abated but the skies still wore remnants of mist and grey cloud, giving the moor a sombre moodiness, for all I cared it could have been torrential rain, I was just happy to be back on familiar ground.

Dartmoor will always present photo opportunities, the most obvious being the landscape as described earlier, yet I find pleasure in finding the smaller treasures, water droplets on grass, a fallen foxglove petal, or fungi thriving in the humid air, to name just a few.