The brown leaves of Autumn show themselves on the trees. The season is changing and with that change comes fungi.

Walking in the woods with Bess, our Chocolate Labrador, is something I do all year. I like the peace and quiet. I like to watch the seasons change. Sometimes, I just like to sit on a tree stump and listen. Coming from a city, I appreciate the lack of noise.

The best time of year, in my opinion, is early Autumn. The sun still holds some warmth and its light remains strong, creating dappled patterns on the freshly carpeted floor of the woods.

In amongst those dappled shadows and on the fallen branches of trees, even in the grass on the banks, fungi grow in profusion at this time of year.
Red capped ones with white spots on which you expect to see a fairy. Brown slimy ones, ones like brackets on the sides of trees, and, in the open grassland, large football sized ones which grow rapidly and corrupt overnight.

I find Fungi fascinating. Do I pick any eat them, you may ask. No. I don’t know enough so as not to kill myself.
Here are some pictures taken over the last 4 years or so of some of the fungi I’ve come across in the woods, primarily, just over the Lincolnshire / Nottinghamshire border in Spalford wood (situated in a rare group of Inland Sand Dunes).

All pictures Copyright Peter Barton 2020