Deception and success

First the deception - this is the Amethyst Deceiver - one of my favourite fungi but it can be really hard to pick out from its usual habitat of damp dark leaf litter. The deception comes, I think, from its changing colour - when its dry the cap and stem turns pale and eventually becomes buff coloured and more or less indistinguishable from the common Deceiver.

The success - this morning I heard that one of my photographs had won one of the categories in the national sweet pea society's annual photography competition (it featured as my blip on 5th July). Another of my submissions was runner-up and four were highly commended. As a reward I'll get all my sweet pea seed for the next season free from the sponsor.