Deer, deer, he burnt the cakes!

We went to Powys Castle at Welshpool for a walk in the grounds.  We saw a group of fallow deer, they looked like youngsters the way that they were bouncing around together.

I was clumps of King Alfred's Cakes fungi on tree bark on a pile of felled tree trunks.  They're named after the old story about King Alfred who was around in the 9th century. Parts of the country had been invaded by Vikings and King Alfred took refuge with a peasant woman in the woods in order to avoid them.  She asked him to watch the cakes that were cooking on the fire while she went out to get firewood.  He fell asleep and the cakes were burnt.

The fungi look like the burnt cakes hence the name.  They aren't edible but can be used as firelighters.

Afterwards we went to Llyn Coed y Dinas, the nature reserve close by.  There were only the usual suspects but I took a photo of the lovely berries of the spindle tree growing there.