On my jobs list today was tighten alligator teeth and oil its jaws. This alligator:
Then I made some more sawdust cutting these lengths of old rhododendron branches
and swept the sawdust onto this bit
to encourage more Hare's-foot Inkcaps to appear there. I hadn't seen any of the actual hare's-foot stage yet, but I did today. However, that comes later in the story.
When I'd angled them against a rock and stamped on the thinner branches to break them and had chopped the thicker ones that stamping didn't work on, I stood on the eucalyptus bench to view the spider webs in the still uncut bit of lawn. From there I began an anticlockwise circumnavigation of the upper garden just observing what is new and how things are and what I need to do next.
Behind the shrub and fern in the top right corner of that pic is a new patch of yarrow flowering away between yet more branches of rhododendron and buddleia that I haven't got round to yet. There's a lot of yarrow leaf all over the upper lawn but it hasn't flowered before so I'm going to leave this pile until after the flowers have set seed.
Up from the yarrow was a new crop of small toadstools. I shal go and collect one or two to have a closer look at later.
Across the top and under the falling down cypress tree there is an outcrop of what I think is the same fungus that was growing around the trunks of what I call the halfway trees–a clump of wild cherry, rowan, holly and flowering currant plus, recently, a self-seeded downy birch. I should say another self-seeded downy birch; there are dozens; I just have to decide which, if any, to let grow.
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| Still haven't managed to identify this species of fungus (nor several others, come to that!) |
Down a step or two from that recumbent branch is the old rowan beset with what looks like the Root Rot fungus (the cypress has it too, which is probably why it's falling over).
Glistening Inkcaps have started to reappear on the rowan as well. The trunk was half covered with these last year.
Down a little from the old rowan is a flowering currant bush. I stuck a pruned branch of it in the ground eight years ago and it is now at least two metres tall with a similar diameter. It has a lot of fruit this year. Bird food.
Now comes the surprise! Down again from the flowering currant is an old compost heap which I'm leaving alone because five little plants have appeared. Last year there were dahlias. Could this be them again?
Also on that compost heap, the biggest Hare's-foot Inkcap yet! The pink bits are Himalayan Balsam flowers falling over the fence from the field. My circumnavigations also have the purpose of hoiking out HBs that are growing within the garden. The bees can have the ones in the field.
And, after I gently pushed away that bit of grass at the bottom of the inkcap stem, a little "hare's-foot" appeared.
Grintastic! Below you can see the furriness inside the 'cup' of the curled open inkcap.
Making my way back across to the shed, I enjoyed this seed head of Common Cat's-ear,
the only remaining African daisy
and a tiny fungus of which we get quite a few but whose name I still know not! For scale, that is a Self-heal seedhead behind it. It has a delicacy similar to the Hare's-foot but on a smaller scale.
By which time I had wet feet and soggy socks. Should 'a worn me wellies.
