Amanita

Another fungi from the amanita group. Unlike the familiar red and white cap of the Fly Agaric - the toodstool from fairy stories - the cap on this one is grey. It has quite an extensive covering of light grey patches which are the remains of the volva - the thin veil that covers the fungus when small is broken as the fungus grows and patches are left stuck on the cap. If we'd had any significant rain these would have been washed off. The skirt is the remains of the veil under the cap. I think this is either the Blusher (amanita rubescens) or the grey spotted amanita (amanita excelsa), but there are other possibilities.