This Year's Target

    Well at last we started a new year and one I think we all hope has rather less worry and uncertainty than the last couple. January is one of the slow months in the fungi world, there will be jelly ears and the odd Scarlet elf cup around but mainly we are just left with aged weather beaten fungi left from the autumn months.

   I find the months of January  and February not only cold and baron of fungi here in the fens, but also a period of time in which I can plan projects that wander endlessly in my mind. These ideas and dreams include many thoughts of traveling to beautiful moss covered woods and forests where the amazing gems of the fungi kingdom await to pose for my camera lens and ancient churchyards where stunning waxcaps nestle in clean green moss knitted grass.

   This year my main objective is to record a complete year's fungi finds in and around Upwell and Outwell. Here in the fens of East Anglia we lack the woodlands found in many other areas of Britian, which makes discovering many types of fungi a bit more difficult. We do have some smaller wooded ares but none like the forests of Thetford and Sandringham, both of which are around 30 minutes drive from us. So with this in mind it will be interesting to see what selection of mushrooms, toadstools and fungus we do have on our doorstep.

   Last year I was lucky enough to discover a large piece of pastureland where sheep are grazed, so this takes care of a lot of grassland fungi such as Waxcaps, corals and earth tongues. Sticking to the villages would restrict the variety found so I have widened the search area to 5 miles either way, which will make it more interesting.

   For now it's another month or two of the odd frosty photos or shots of ice covered bonnets and field blewits and dreams of Penny Buns, cities of Fly Agarics and carpets of Amethyst Deceivers.

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