Amazing what our woodland holds. Scarlet Elf Cups is just one of Nature's Miracles.

Jack spied 3 the other morning and so took me up to see them as never in life had seen them before. It was only when I googled them ///thank goodness for Google that we were able to put a name to them . Yes there were 3, but then I look to the right and it was as if they had just sprung out of the woodwork there was hundreds of them. The Scarlet Elfcup displays bright red cups with short stems. It can be seen in late winter and early spring on fallen twigs and branches (often Hazel, Elm and Willow), usually buried under moss. It is reasonably widespread, but not very common. It is mostly found in damp, shady areas. Fungi belong to their own kingdom and get their nutrients and energy from organic matter, rather than photosynthesis like plants. It is often just the fruiting bodies, or 'mushrooms', that are visible to us, arising from an unseen network of tiny filaments called 'hyphae'. These fruiting bodies produce spores for reproduction, although fungi can also reproduce asexually by fragmentation. Hopefully there will be still some about for the grandchildren to see as it is quite near to where they play in the woods and by the stream. As we walked back to the hours we could see how nature is waking up from its winter sleep. The daffodils are pushing through, the catkins are dangling delicately from the branches and the wild garlic is coming through. Another week the ground will be covered with a green wild garlic carpet. If it rains you can really smell the garlic bouncing through the atmosphere

. Even a bumble bee had ventured out to see what pollen he could find. Bobbing and buzzing from one plant to another.It was nice to see.

Oh how Deer ... and precious

 How I love Autumn. 

The trees are looking amazing all warm red,oranges  and some days the skies are too as the sun rises and set. The former I don't normally see as many of you know I am quite a night owl. Although this morning I was up before 4am as we have just been having some new shelves put up in the and I needed to fill them ...well more like I needed to make space. 

I think it looks as if I will be back to writing my blog more often as we are going back into stranger times, so here goes.

I take some of the dogs out during the day when Jack is on the shoots and in fact have quite enjoyed it . I managed to pick quite a gathering of blackberries [before the devil spit on them ]- Some say the 10th October but as I looked this up I feel there is more sense to the date being the 29th September,which is Michaelmas.  After that the early frosts seem to come and make them all mushy . 

 I gathered quite a lot of fungi and we have survived although I left some in their natural habitat as I wasn't too sure.

The longer I walked the more the dogs seemed comfortable to do their own thing and  I liked that too as I wasn't tripping up over them all the time . They are very good and always come back when I shout ...well most of the time .

And look what I came across ... the photo below show a little fawn curled up in the sunshine. probably no more than a couple of days old. I have never been to one so close before and it warmed my heart for days.To begin with I wasn't sure if it was dead or alive .then I saw its ear twitch and a step nearer you could see its tiny body breathing . I went back a couple of hours later  without the dogs  just to check it hadn't been left .By this time it had opened its eyes as I heard a noise high above me .Its mother was calling out as I made a quick exit as I didnt want its mother not to come back for it .

Nature is such a marvellous thing and this last few months as the pace of life has slowed down for many of us we start to see things more or less on our doorstep .