First Footing

After what seems like several days of almost continuous heavy rain, yesterday was dry, clear and in the morning even sunny. In the field behind our house, a flock of gulls alternately settled on the strip where the farmer had been muck-spreading or wheeled frantically about before settling again; two crows ducked and dived, chasing each other at great speed (rivals or lovers I wondered?) and a trio of long-tailed tits bounced about in the hedgerow.

So yes - a beautiful day.

Naturally, I opted to go out for a walk today.
The mist had descended, any hope of a view had disappeared and a fine drizzle seemed to hang in the air waiting to find somebody to soak. I believe that the Scots call a day of this kind dreish or something of the kind.

Still, when nothing further than the next field boundary can be seen, we're forced to focus a little more carefully on those things in our immediate vicinity. Each twig had a silvery drop building to a fall; fallen leaves, bark, stones and fungi had a sheen provided by the damp; and on dull days the greens of moss, holly and ferns are somehow more green than when the sun shines.


I took a tour around Eaves Wood, looking for a green flower that I thought I remembered finding here at this time of year before. But perhaps not this early, because I didn't find it today. This is, in part, the reason for the Blog because hopefully next year I will have a record of when and where to look through the course of the year.

What I did find however where fungi - lots of them. I have a couple of field guides but I'm afraid that I've never really got to grips with identifying fungi. What I do know is that today they enlivened a wet and muddy ramble.

The woods were full of this one.


And this one was actually orange, but it did seem to glow with it's own peculiar inner light.

This is Jew's Ear (although maybe it now has a more PC name?).
It's supposed to be edible, but I think that I'll pass!