Autumn is certainly here and the mornings are starting to feel crisp and chilly, with the kids being back at school it's nice to try and get out at the weekend to hunt for some of nature's treasures.
We often take a basket, some apples and a flask full of hot chocolate and take a stroll down to the woods.
We put the kids on mushroom spotting duty and usually offer a treat to anybody who finds one.
The first "treasures" found were colourful leaves, acorns and pine cones which all got bundled into the basket. Followed by elderberries and a few feathers.
We've also been finding a few puffballs. at the moment Puffball mushrooms are usually edible and come in all sizes, these were quite small ones, Lee cut into one and it was black inside - these ones aren't edible.
My best find so far has to be the cauliflower fungus, it is huge, I wish I'd taken a photo to show the scale of it. It was probably as big as my head. This was at the base of a pine tree hidden under some holly. It's appearance can be described as similar to a sea sponge, a brain, or a head of cauliflower. We had it with our dinner it is delicious and reminds me of noodles in texture.
Here are a few other mushrooms that we've spotted in the woods this September.
We are also in the process of making some cider, Lee has been watching lots of tutorials on YouTube and we have a batch bubbling away at the moment. The cider has been made using cooking apples from a friend's garden.
I'm hoping to take a trip to a National Trust property soon and also visit the pumpkin fields again in October.