Wednesday 23 September 2015

Alongside some hedging

Yesterday was a lovely warm but breezy autumn day so I took the opportunity to do some hedge-cutting. The Boggy Brae 'north-west passage' between the birch bank and the rhododendron hedge needed widened again. The photo to the right shows the widest bit. It gets narrower as you progress south-eastwards:

You have to negotiate that bit with one foot on the 'path' and one on the steep bank to the right. In a couple of spots right next to the path, heather (Ling/Calluna vulgaris) has established itself. I want that to spread. There's also a tiny rowan tree. I haven't decided whether to let that stay there yet. I do like rowan trees.

Between blasts at the hedge with the hedge-cutter and while raking up the cuttings, I found several toadstools. I don't know their names yet.






I think this one is a milkcap (Lactarius). It best fits the description of L. azonites rather than Birch Milkcap (L. tabidus) or Grey Milkcap (L. vietus). None of them are edible.







Also down there at the bottom of the bank is my latest bryophytic find, the liverwort Greater Featherwort (Plagiochila asplenioides).







And the autumnal dying back of Self-heal is lovely to watch:

Today is dreich and the hills have put on their invisibility cloak so the other side of the hedge will have to wait.

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