Brown Bonnets

Basil and I went to Burleigh Wood in the afternoon hoping to find fungi. I'd been told there was lots to see.

I've never been to Burleigh Wood other than in April and May to see the bluebells. Autumn is making its presence felt with colours turning to yellow and brown.

I was surprised to find that the ground was extremely dry. I suppose we haven't had drenching rain for some time. The wood is usually muddy in Spring. Really muddy in places where wild garlic grows. I assume a spring feeds the trickle of water that defines the western boundary.

There were fungi but not as many as I thought I might see. In fact, a lot of the undergrowth seemed to have been stripped of brambles and bracken which stifle the bluebells in the Spring. That might be because of people walking in the wood.

These are bonnets, a member of the Mycenaceae family of fungi, growing in a rotting tree trunk.

In the evening, I went to a concert at Emmanuel Church, Loughborough, to hear Charnwood Voices aka Shepshed Singers and bumped into an old friend, Andrea. She wants to borrow one of my folk song books.