Fungal foraging

We spent a very enjoyable morning yesterday on a fungal foray run by mycologist Jonathan Revett in Thetford Forest.



Together with our friends Ursula, Dave and Helen...



we found a lovely basketful....



...which Jonathan then checked so that we took home only edible ones (plus a rare earthstar for Helen to take to school).





This year seems to be particularly good - the group as a whole found more than 50 types of mushrooms and toadstools in a couple of hours ambling round the forest.



I loved the range of colours we found - purply and orange and red and yellows - and their wonderful names, such as hares' ears, wood blewits, shaggy parasols, wood woolly-foot, saffron milk cap and amethyst deceivers.













Of course there were also ones that were ugly (black saddle)



very dangerous (death cap)



and weird (stinkhorn)....



I learnt far lot more on this foray than on ones I've done in the past (though still won't be filling the frying pan without an expert to hand!). And I've finally realised that there's no need to try to identify lots of different types - all I have to do is to learn with confidence a few good ones (as well as any they could be confused with and of course in particular the very dangerous ones).

The wood blewit and amethyst deceiver were my favourite new discoveries of the day - not only did I like their colours and taste, but also appreciated the fact that they are easily recognisable!






We started our breakfast with some of yesterday's findings (sadly a few including a big cep had gone past their best and so had to be thrown out) sauted with garlic and parsley...



...then went a little walk to put our new powers of observation to the test - and were pleased to find that we are now able to spot and identify (at least approximately) many more than on a walk a week ago!

Astonishing hibiscus tree

I really loved this beautiful little flower-smothered hibiscus tree we came across in Spain.



The Technomage has quite a few shirts featuring hibiscus flowers



and when on holiday I'm always on the look-out for suitable bushes that he can be photographed blending in with (to the amusement of passers-by!). Our own bush at home this wet English summer only managed five flowers:



and most of the ones we saw in Spain had lovely flowers but not many of them.



Now that Nerja's street market has been moved to a ridiculously inaccessible place out of the town centre, we got our holiday market fix in nearby Torrox Costa, where we came across the astonishing little tree completely covered in huge flowers. (Sadly, he wasn't wearing one of his hibiscus shirts at the time)









It was just on a strip of grass lining the main road, not in someone's carefully tended garden.



I've no idea whether it is a special variety or just a freakishly wonderful plant but I just loved it and could have happily spent the afternoon sitting gazing at it (and probably would have if I'd had my bigger, better camera with me). Sadly, even if I could track one down it probably wouldn't thrive here!

Great format for printing digital photos

I've always loved taking photos but have been struggling since the onset of digital with which, if any, to print. I tend to get some printed whenever I need a selection to show people, eg at my school reunion last week, with the result that I have a random pile of prints while most photos only ever get viewed on screen. I would like to have a more coherent set of prints to leaf through, but don't want to get swamped.

I'm hoping that a type of print I discovered on Truprint yesterday may be the answer. They're called collage prints, and cost just 9p for a 6x4 one (19p and 99p for bigger sizes). You pick one to 20 of your photos, choose a background colour, specify the gap between pics and decide whether to add a title. It then arranges them



and you can either accept the design or make changes.



I'd love to get into the habit of doing one of these for each month/quarter/year/holiday or whatever. I've tried something similar before, but that involved using a macro in Photoshop and was a bit fiddly and I never got into a routine.

The collage prints aren't completely flexible - pics are rearranged simply by shuffling so it could be frustrating if a star shot resolutely remains small. But for 9p, I'm not going to complain!

My preferred normal photo printing service is the excellent Photobox but I just happened to be using Truprint yesterday as their calendars were half price - we thought that designing the calendars would take us only an hour or so but we ended up faffing round all day!

I won't be swapping to Truprint for normal prints though - theirs are 6"x4" not 6"x4.5" so some of the print gets cropped (and you can't choose where). So I won't be deserting Photobox.