A little bit of autumn

New sage growth

Common Cat's Ear flowers and peony leaves

Autumn crocuses and multi fungi

I only went out to photograph these

before they keeled over completely as here in 2006

But I could hardly place my feet without standing on toadstools of one kind or another

This is the bit of moss that pulled the white stuff off
the toadstool above

This one has 'ears'

And then I noticed the last of the flowers

Like self-heal

And herb robert

And buttercups. This is our front'lawn', btw.

Just before I went in, I found this within a stride of the front doorstep

 and this piece of collapsed rose rooting itself on the front terrace

I was watched from down the lane

Fungal treasure I found on a mossy ash log

I noticed some tiny fungal fruiting bodies behind the bark of this piece of old ash trunk. You can see at the bottom the piece of moss-covered bark that I broke away.

My secateurs are to give the scale

















Zooming in

Part of the 'treasure' is, of course, the water droplets on spider silk.

Berry pancake/soufflé/omelette

I tried a new technique for making Mark Sisson's berry pancake. His method is to cook the berries first in butter in a frying pan and then add the eggs (whites beaten to a froth, cinnamon and vanilla added to the yolks and all mixed together). The trouble with this method, I have found, is that the fruit tends to if not quite burn, then at least get slightly overcooked, and some of it sticks to the pan when you tip it all out onto a plate.

My first attempt to overcome this problem was to change the cooking fat to beef fat because butter burns at a lower temperature, relatively speaking. This didn't make a significant difference. I concluded that the problem was the method of having the fruit in contact with the hot pan for too long while the egg cooked above it.

My next attempt was to slightly cook the fruit and then transfer it to a soufflé dish, add the egg mixture, and bake the whole lot. That solved the sticking problem but the egg texture wasn't as nice.

What I did a couple of days ago when I made this pancake was to cook the fruit in the frying pan in a little beef fat, then tip it out into a bowl where it stayed until the egg froth had started to cook in the pan. Then I tipped the fruit (blueberries seem to work best, though a mixture of blackberries and raspberries are good too) on top of the eggs, as for an omelette. The visual effect was fun to watch, as you see from the photos below and the colours are wonderful.

This is definitely the best treatment for the fruit – it keeps its taste and juiciness and doesn't get overcooked. Toad was less keen on the egg texture this time, which was different again from the other methods. I liked it but perhaps will try getting the eggs almost completely cooked before tipping the fruit on another time.

I suppose one could just cook a plain frothy omelette and eat it with the stewed fruit. Unless someone has a better idea.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them

The cooking blueberries

Fruit tipped onto the egg base

The omelette bubbles up or the berries sink, as if into quicksand

Ready to eat – with whipped cream
(one day I will try it with ice-cream, possibly as well as cream)

A walk in the rain

Aspirin and decongestant failed to shift a headache so I went for a walk in the rain, shielding the camera under my jacket. In most cases I bent over the camera while taking shots. I had to use the flash in the low light in any case. I'm pleased with the results, especially as aspects of my new camera continue to baffle me. (Encouragingly, even Toad, who has several hundred per cent more knowledge of photography than I do, found the same things baffling). I've sussed something now at least!

The photos can be enlarged by clicking on them

one of the compost heap dahlias

flowering currant leaves

absolutely masses of these under goat willow
on a base of dea and rotting spiraea stems

cup lichen on side of ash log

new yew shoots – roe deer nibble at it so it keeps regrowing

dog lichen and mosses at the base of a bird cherry trunk

fading bird cherry leaves on the same trunk