Fungi

Today we, including my son (aliveunwed), celebrated my daughter’s (FirehorseMia) upcoming birthday. Her choice of activity was a visit to Dean’s Bush, a tiny tract of original native forest in Christchurch. The weather looked bleak, and as we arrived the rain started. The Saturday food market adjacent to the bush entry was in full swing, which meant we had to park some distance away.

The forest was dark and dank, an island of peace and beauty within the bustle of the city. I was attracted to this bright fungus on a fallen log. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a macro lens to properly capture the detail of texture.

Walking back through the market we bought hot food to eat and fruit and vegetables to take home.

My son scored a jar of beech forest honey, which we don’t see on sale much these days. It has a large component of honeydew, which is secreted by scale insects on the native beech trees. That has a lovely soft, spicy flavour, which generations of kids have licked from the trees. Sadly, this has been destroyed by the plague of Vespula wasps, but the war against the wasps is being won. Perhaps honeydew will return.