Tag Archives: fungi

Blogtober: 26, 27, 28

Posted on 29th Oct 2024 by | 10 comments

On Saturday I said goodbye to the cosy nest. I had my thickest crocheted blanket with me and two hot water bottles – so I was very snug.

The drive home went smoothly and I was delighted to see I had another delivery from Felt Wildly to greet me.

I’m excited about makimg some more fun fungi, with tutorials from the Felted Fungi Club run by Sophie Wheatley of All Things Felt and Beautiful

Sophie is a very good online tutor.

The clocks went back an hour, early on Sunday morning and the weather got a little cooler, so I had my first fire of the Winter. It takes me a while to adjust to darker evenings, but fires definitely help.

On Sunday I went on a 3 mile woodland walk with friend J and her dogs.

It was a glorious afternoonI hoped to find fungi but there was little to see – maybe the season is coming to an end. I did find a bonus post top, near a stile

What is the history of that S shaped piece of metal I wonder.

Precious sunny day of Autumn

We both stood there just breathing it in.

Yesterday, Monday – I flopped. I have not done a stitch of knitting or crochet since last Tuesday – so I needed a reboot and spent most of the day crafting and watching needle felting tutorials. Bliss.

 

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Blogtober: 17: Needlefelting

Posted on 18th Oct 2024 by | 15 comments

Line dancing –  made it! I have been trying to get there since the beginning of September, but I got there yesterday.

On their website it said that 10 – 11 am was for beginners – it was NOT a beginners class. Most of them have been going for years so I was straight in at the deep end, but everyone was very friendly and welcoming. I enjoyed it. It was a brain workout rather then a physical workout.  I will go again.

In the afternoon I took a free online tutorial in needlefelting with Sophie Wheatley of All Things Felt and Beautiful it was EXCELLENT. I highly recommend it. There is still time to join her facebook group and take part in the 2 further workshops. Yesterday’s workshop, today’s and Sunday’s will remain online until 24th October.

There are people from all over the world joining in and many from the US..

Sophie teaches how to make realistic 3d models of all sorts of fungi. Yesterday we were learning how to make a fly agaric.

Using colours I already had, I was really pleased with  my pink and orange version

There is more to do on it and another workshop at 4pm today and another on Sunday.

The knitting  of the cardigan for Miss M has been completed!Hurray!Now it is already for sewing up and finding some buttons.

A productive day!

 

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Blogtober: 16: Kingston Lacy

Posted on 16th Oct 2024 by | 21 comments

This morning I drove to Kingston Lacy, my longest journey in the new car so far.

I do love some of the planting combinations they have in the gardens

I was meeting up with a couple of crochet buddies, and despite the threat of rain, we decided to go and see the firey autumnal maples

They did not disappoint!

followed by a walk through the woods

and then back to the house and the Café for hot drinks, cakes and crochet….which I forgot to take a photo of, we were too busy chatting.

I can’t think of a nicer way to spend a few hours on a grey October day.

When I got back to the car park it looked as though my car had gathered a few of her tribe around her – 7 red cars all parked together (mine is front left).

I have never been one for anthropomorphising cars before – but I feel I’m doing battle with young Japanese men when I am trying to work out the controls, so I’m hoping to feminise the car in order to like it more.

Driving IS getting easier – small victories each day. Phew!

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Silent Sunday

Posted on 13th Aug 2023 by | 16 comments

 

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Silent Sunday Stroll

Posted on 8th Nov 2020 by | 14 comments

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Silent Sunday in Thorncombe Woods

Posted on 27th Sep 2020 by | 18 comments

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Walktober

Posted on 23rd Oct 2018 by | 40 comments

Inspired by Eliza’s post, I set off with Miss E, Master R and Little Miss M to record our walk yesterday, a glorious October morning.

setting out

This Autumn is truly deliciously spectacular.

Little Miss M reminded me to put Strava on so that we could record our distance to add to our target of 500 miles.

This is one of our favourite walks and we have been doing it since they were all babies, but it has been a long time since we were here  ….

….. imagine their delight when they spied the river and remembered the swing!

bridge, river, country walk

Miss E was first to get there

ford in the river

But of course they all had a turnrope swing  I think we could have stayed there all daypaddling, rope swing

whilst they explored in their own inimitable waysbridge

walks are never dull with this lot!

But we had to cover some ground if Little Miss M and I are going to reach our goal – onward.walktober

and upward.

Whilst they were looking at the cows and chatting together I went up ahead

backlit

wait for us Granny!

sunken lane

old tree

There is something magical about sunken lanes lined with old knarled trees, contorted by their history

is this one a camel?camel?

or a hare?

face in a tree

Fairy fungi everywhere – we had to look up the name of this one – Fly Agaric

fly agaric

and do you think this one might be the rare: Iodine Bolete

fungi for elves

It looked the perfect home for an evil elf!

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At the top of the hill we found coconut-scented gorse flowers to nibble and were treated to some glorious viewsDSC_0485

Here we sat for a drink and a snack. We all thought of three words each to describe our walk so far, and as we walked on the children composed little poems using the words – it all got very giggly as they created weird and wonderful rhymes.

And then we found ourselves in a prickly gorse tunnel where the path had become overgrowngorse

I was hoping it would end and we would come out on clear path so we battled on for quite a way getting stabbed with prickles and feeling like badgers in the undergrowth. We sent Master R ahead to see if there was light at the end of the tunnel – but no – we had to turn back and make our way back the way we had come.

glorious view

Our batteries fully recharged by the wonderful views, the sunshine and that blue sky

sunken lane

Oh the joy of autumn sunshine through trees and walking the sunken lanes.

Happy sigh!

Back to the car and Little Miss M and I checked Strava. We had added 2.4 miles to our total. We have now done 54 miles – only 446 to go!

I hope you enjoyed scampering along with us.

I’m joining Robin at Breezes at Dawn for her annual Walktober Gathering

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Winter walk

Posted on 8th Dec 2014 by | Leave a comment

Seeing the world through the eyes of children is pure joy, especially when making the most of the Winter sunshine on a December weekend. I’m lucky to have this lovely walk from my housewalk1

this south facing hedge catching all of the warmth, with the oak trees still holding onto their leaves
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My daughter and I took Miss E, Master R and Miss M for a lovely walk with their cousins big bro and little bro  – 5 grandchildren all together – happy Granny!

Ages ranging from 2 to 7 – precious! They all took little containers out with them to collect things to make a picture when we got back, and were delighted to find Oak Apple Galls. We never did get to make the picture as other things took over, but it was a fun focus for a while.

Grannyism: How to recognise an oak tree …….

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An oak tree has a bark like an elephant’s skin and is all knees and elbows, accompanied with a demo of knees and elbows all bendy and and sticking out.

Spotting tracks:walk13

and we even flushed a couple of deer out of the bushes and watched them bound away bouncing over the maize stubble.

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which the boys pulled up for a sword fight, whilst Miss E helped big bro’s little bro look for interesting things

EnB

and found some amazing fungi

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fungi

just sitting there on the bare earth (Edit 30.Dec.14: just discovered that it is Orange Peel fungus and apparently edible although not tasty – I won’t be trying it – it is still there, saw it again yesterday)walk6

and masses of enormous mole hills, great for stamping on

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all in a row following the lines of stubble

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onto a track, then

 

a race to the top

top

 

when 2 year olds needed a ride

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before turning for home

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under the fairy archDSC_0239 DSC_0242

 

looking for Granny’s house in the distance

and home for hot chocolate – glorious!

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