Growing in Ayton Wood, along the path

Photographed on my morning walk.  There are a lot of these growing in the deciduous part of the wood.  Almost of the others I've seen have been very low growing and quite badly eaten (I suspect by slugs).  This is the first decent specimen I've come across, and I almost trod on it on my way back home!  I think it belongs to the Russula family - it might be the `Beechwood Sickener', but I'm not sure (I now think it is the Purple Brittlegill - Russula atropurpurea) I'm very much a novice when it comes to fungi. I photographed  four different species in Ayton Wood - one of them soft and squishy on the top, and three different ones in Millmoor Plantation, under the beech trees.  One of them looks just like the toadstool house in children's illustrated fairy stories (except it's a bit chewed)!  So seven different types of fungi in all (I'm just being a bit slow in working out what they all are!)

A beautiful morning to be out for a walk.  Several Speckled Wood butterflies flying around even one in our garden, which I don't think I've ever seen before.

I'm now on my way to the hospital to visit Ann - it isn't looking as though she'll be out tomorrow.  She has to have one clear day when she comes off the drip and is able to take the antibiotics orally without being sick.  I'm just so pleased that she seems well in herself now - so shouldn't be long.