Hanging around in the cemetery

I deliberately decided to have a very relaxed and low-key birthday, in contrast with the Twelfth Night party planned for tomorrow. 

Chris and I had agreed to go out for a walk, but the continuing grey weather and the absence of any interesting birds in the area left us rather directionless. In the end I opted for Stamford Cemetery, as I'd been told that there were some earthstars there and I also wanted to get a better photograph of the Martin's Ramping-fumitory.

We found the earthstars quite easily, two species growing under a magnificent Cedar-of-Lebanon. One species was clearly Striated Earthstar, but the other was more puzzling. It was only when I was able to compare my photographs (see extra) with the books that I realised it might be Field Earthstar, a very rare species with only a dozen records from the UK! This has since been confirmed. What a great birthday present - two new species for me.

I also spent a while photographing lichens on the tombstones. I'm trying to become familiar with some of the more common lichens around Peterborough and am getting some helpful advice via Twitter. This is one of the more distinct crustose species, a Caloplaca, almost certainly Caloplaca flavescens which is a very common species that often grows on sunny, nutrient-enriched hard limestone. 

In the evening we had a very splendid Middle Eastern themed meal,. Pete and Alex cooked slow-roast lamb with pomegranate, aubergine and lentil stew and a wide variety of salads, while Ben created an orange polenta cake with honey syrup. It was all absolutely delicious and I felt very pampered!