Well I never.....

I went out this morning, clad in all tyes of waterproof gear, lagged up to my oxters, what happened? It got warm and dry. The hound performed well until she decided two legged walking/lunging on her lead suited her purposes. Later she fell in the river, immersed herself then blamed me because she started shivering. I swear I shall do some damage to this little bassa.

Before leaving I tried to identify a fungus I found yesterday. While I was trying to take a picture of it I spotted the pink globules above. If you look just a couple of cm right of them you will see a few red dots. (Pink dots are about 1.5 millimetres across)

I had no idea what it was as my book was on the desk at home. Having read Collins and checked Wiki i feel fairly certain it is the following. There's an interesting note about the red dots.

Lycogala epidendrum, commonly known as wolf's milk, groening's slime is a cosmopolitan species of plasmodial slime mould which is often mistaken for a fungus. The aethalia, or fruiting bodies, occur either scattered or in groups on damp rotten wood, especially on large logs, from June to November. These aethalia are small, pink to brown cushion-like globs. They may excrete a pink paste if the outer wall is broken before maturity. When mature, the colour tends to become more brownish. When not fruiting, single celled individuals move about as very small, red amoeba-like organisms called plasmodia, masses of protoplasm that engulf bacteria, fungal and plant spores, protozoa, and particles of non-living organic matter through phagocytosis (see slime mould for more information).


Rant: While taking pictures a family group passed by. The Granny figure determined her granddaughter was not going to be exposed to the puff ball fungus or the strange orange slime mould or indeed the pink slime mould. If youngsters aren't shown interesting items how are they to be educated and pass on the information to others and future generations?