Polypore Galore

Its been a very very wet & grey day here today.
Kitted up this morning & took P down to High Borrowdale  (I'm sure there's a hint of oxymoron in there somewhere) - I figured a walk through an area described by Wainwright as "the most beautiful valley outside the Lake District"* might offer some shelter as for large parts it wanders through some fairly ancient woodland (soon there'll be a lot more as Friends of the Lake District who own the site have just finished planting 1000+ trees) - and for parts of the walk it did - but we were still dripping by the time we returned to the car. Pooch seemed more lively though - so hopefully her new Glucosamine tablets are having a positive effect.
In one of the deeper parts of the wood I came across a fallen birch with a wonderful collection of polypores adorning it, the one in the foreground was about 14inches across (350mm).

In the afternoon we went up to visit the Up Front Gallery for their annual Up North exhibition - Mrs IttH has work in it again this year - but personally I felt the overall standard this year wasn't as good as previous, fortunately the vegetarian cafe was excellent as ever.

* High Borrowdale now forms the most Easterly part of the extension to the Lake District National Park.