Doing the cake walk

Now that my geriatric dog is satisfied with just a short stroll, one of our  favourite routes is the nearby green lane that runs between fields on one side and a wooded slope on the other. Many of the trees are ash whose fallen branches host these hard black fungi that take their nourishment from the rotting timber. Often called cramp balls, another common name for them is King Alfred's cakes for their resemblance to the burnt buns that the said monarch was supposed to have neglected when, on the run from the Danes,  he took refuge in a peasant hut under the guise of a benighted traveller. The lady of the hovel left him in charge of the baking while she went out to fetch wood and, not surprisingly,  berated him when she returned to discover the scorched scones - although you might imagine she would have noticed his distinctive head gear.