Make Raised Beds and get the Digging Done, While the Sun Shines.

There is an old saying that goes 'Make hay while the sun shines', it was a beautiful sunny weekend so I took advantage of it and 'Made a raised bed and did some digging whilst the autumny sun shone'. I was so pleased that we managed to get these jobs done, the combination of fresh air, autumn sun and a flask of green tea really helped me feel better after my day in bed on Friday.

We went and got some wood on Saturday morning and just managed to squeeze it into the car. And Ed went to work on building the raised bed. I must admit I left him to it because he gets a bit scary when he is holding tools, its like DIY Jekyll and Hyde! So I decided to get some weeding done on the four front raised beds. I then dug in some organic manure so the soil will be in tip top condition in the spring (Ed had disappeared back home by the time the smelly poo came out). 

Today I set to digging over the large veg patch at the front of our plot. This was very hard work but it needed to get done before the heavy frosts starts to fall. I just thought about my dad when I was digging because I used to always help him out in the garden when he was digging over the veg plot, usually I would have to pick up all the weeds. Once I had dug it all over I sowed half of the patch with my green manure (because I vastly underestimated how much seed I needed) and hope the birds didn't swoop down and fill their tummies with my rye when I went home. I also got two bulbs of garlic planted as well, which is very exciting. Can't wait to see them peeking out of the soil.

This is a sneaky pic that I took over one of our neighbours fences in the allotment, that pumpkin is huge! I wonder what they are going to do with, it would look amazing as a jack-O-lantern, then made into a lovely soup or something... *yum*.

Hope you have all had a great weekend in the autumny sun.

Audio Book Review - Some Kind of Fairy Tale by Graham Joyce.

My first 5 star review! When my Audible credits came through this month I didn't have a clue what books I would buy. So I had a little wonder through Audible and stumbled upon this book. One part of the publishers summary really jumped out at me, it said "It is as if Neil Gaiman and Joanne Harris had written a fairy tale together." Now if you have been reading this blog for a while you will probably be aware that I LOVE Neil Gaiman. I also adore fairy tales and folklore, so I knew that I should give this book a chance and I am so happy that I did. 

This book is by the English author Graham Joyce and it is set only a little way from where I live, which made it even more atmospheric for me. I was totally blown away by how gritty and intelligent this book is. The premiss is that a young girl of 16 goes missing in the local woods without a trace and 20 years later she returns on Christmas day having not really aged at all. The story blooms like the buds of the bluebells in the book, it is heady and enticing whilst also threatening danger just to warn you not to get too carried away. The characters are all beautifully thought out and their relationships are scripted with the love and fragility that will leave you not wanting to let go of them.  This is a book for people who love fairy tales and yearn for that certain something, dare I say it... magical. It will also leave you wondering what the truth really is and it may make you think twice about wondering in that cherished bluebell wood near you.  

Toadstools in Sherwood Forest.

As Autumn is starting to creep in slowly it means that it is a perfect time to go and search for fungus. So here are the toadstools that I managed to snap yesterday in Sherwood Forest. I have tried to identify them using my Mushrooms and Toadstools book and I think I have got some nailed but others I just couldn't identify.

This one seems to be Heterobasidion Annosum. I think the colours of this is really unusual and pretty. 

This one is Scleroderma Citrinum or more well known as the Common Earthball. If I'm right with this it has a black inside and it sometimes mixed with truffles as an adulteration! This is not good news as it is mildly poisonous and can make you have fainting spells and gastric problems. So watch out for dodgy truffle sellers. 

This one is Trametes Versicolor. I think it kinda looks like weird ears.

I think this one could be Hypholoma Fasciculare or more commonly known as Sulphur Tuft. I'm not 100% sure though.

This is a troublesome one to try and identify, I'm still pondering over this one. 

I couldn't identify this one either, but Ed said it looked like little ghosts, which I thought was quite cute. 

I think this one could be Kuehneromyces mutabilis commonly known as the Sheathed Woodtuft.



This one is Dacryomyces Stillatus or more commonly known as Orange Jelly. I think Orange Jelly is a rather forgiving name for this one, it looks absolutely gross!

This little beauty is Piptoporus Betulinus also known as the Birch Bracket or the Birch Polypore. Ed and I thought this one looked like a nose exploding out of the tree. It was a tricky one to identify because apparently it only looks like this when it is young, as it matures it looks more like a shelf fungus.

It was a lot of fun hunting for these in the forest and I spent a good part of yesterday evening trying to identify as many as I could. I must have been concentrating so hard on them that I even dreamt about mushrooms & toadstools! All I know for sure is that I don't think I would ever be brave enough to pick and eat my own mushrooms, there are just so many that you can't eat.