Sunday, December 21

Time to have fun(gi)

This time of year we spend more time looking through windows at the garden rather than being out there. It was whilst gazing out of the window that Martyn spotted something new and orange standing out from the general drabness.
Camera poised and zoomed in confirmed that the splash of warm colour was indeed fungi.

Some years back we bought some slices of tree trunk from a local wood merchants. These were placed in borders with the aim of providing stepping 'stones' for when we needed to step into the borders for a spot of maintenance. The slices are now rotting away and it was one of these slices that was providing a home for the fungi. Of course I had to go out for a closer look and to take a few photos.
I'll never become a fungi expert and I have no idea whether these are poisonous specimens or not but something is obviously making a meal of one mushroom - or is it a toadstool?  Does anyone know the difference? I've always naively assumed that mushrooms were edible and toadstools not.
Anyway it's good to know that something enjoys this  cold, windy and often gloomy and damp weather as I don't. The thermometer may show milder temperatures but the biting wind has other ideas.

PS - If you read Martyn's blog, you will know that we have had broadband issues. We've never considered that this super fast fibre optic service was all it was cracked up to be. Now we know why. Our recent broadband failure revealed that for all this time our hub was situated in the wrong place and was seriously under-performing. The remedy was anything but straightforward and involved more work from us than the engineer but now we are up to speed. Isn't technology wonderful?


Copyright: Original post from Our Plot at Green Lane Allotments http://glallotments.blogspot.co.uk/ author S Garrett

23 comments:

  1. I guess we have been lucky. Our broadband works well. At least most of the time.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maybe ours would have if it had been installed correctly in the first place, Daphne

      Delete
  2. Those fungi look like one of the ones I saw the other day, which a friend identified as Velvet Shanks - but them I could well be wrong!
    P.S. Re "Isn't technology wonderful?" - NO!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is amazing what we can do now though , Mark Sci-fi of childhood days brought to life.

      I'll look up those fungi Velvet Legs?

      Delete
  3. I use the same terms as you do, musrooms for edible and toadstools for non edible. Technology is wonderful when it's working.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. People seem to always think og mushrooms as edible don't they , Jo? Whether it is botanically correct or not,

      Delete
  4. I can't for the life of me remember where but I have a vague recollection of reading about someone sending fungii of for an ID, me and my memory!
    Well spotted Martyn.
    We don't get super duper fibre optic broadband here, the service we do get sends my son (a keen gamer) into a tizzy at times.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I seem to remember somewhere that identifies fungi too, Angie I bet that they are busy! Any likelihood that super fast will come in your direction?

      Delete
  5. I always plan on learning a little more about mushrooms but never seem to get around to it. I have lots of those at the moment too, but we seem to have had lots all year. Good to hear your internet is now up to speed, doesn't it make a difference.xxx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The names of most just don't seem to stick, Dina and many look so similar.

      Delete
  6. Oh what I would give for super fast broadband. We still use pigeons down here.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The downside of country living I suppose Jessica, That;s the trouble out pigeons are not kept busy enough so they vandalise out vegetable patches,

      Delete
  7. So glad you've got those frustrating broadband issues sorted. I was just looking at the River Cottage fungi book yesterday, it's really informative. A bit expensive, even in the community bookshop (£7) so I didn't pick it up, but it does look like a quite definitive guide. I'll be interested to see if anyone identifies your orange mushrooms, I see you have one suggestion already.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm not sure a book would.help me CJ as so many look the same on photos especially.

      St one point we thought that we would end up with wires all over the house but extenders worked which would have worked easily had not the hub been squeezed into a shoe cupboard with only one power socket and extenders not liking extension cables.

      Delete
  8. They look like saffron milkcaps/pine mushrooms to me. Do they bruise blue when you crush a bit of them?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Alexis, Thanks for the suggestion When the wind dies down I'll see whether they bruise.

      Delete
    2. They don't bruise blue - they stay the same colour

      Delete
  9. I'm not good in identifying mushrooms. It look cute anyway!

    ReplyDelete
  10. It looks like an edible mushroom here. But I'm not sure your mushroom is edible.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It looked good enough to eat Endah but I'm not brave enough to have tried

      Delete
  11. I must admit I don’t know mushrooms well enough to pick for eating, I just buy them, only exception is chanterelle as they are so distinctive – but I haven’t picked any since moving to Britain, not many to find around here in East London!
    You probably have a local ‘mushroom guru’, most boroughs have, maybe you could send off some photos and perhaps they’ll give you a visit after Christmas – that is if the mushroom production continues :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They are now gone , Helene. Even if someone told me that they were edible I wouldn't dare eat any!

      Delete

Thank you for visiting and leaving a comment - it is great to hear from you and know that there are people out there actually reading what I write! Come back soon.
(By the way any comments just to promote a commercial site, or any comments not directly linked to the theme of my blog, will be deleted)
I am getting quite a lot of spam. It is not published and is just deleted. I have stopped sifting through it and just delete any that ends up in my spam folder in one go so I am sorry if one of your messages is deleted accidentally.
Comments to posts over five days old are all moderated.