Fly agaric

I had a great day today.  I had booked on a U3A geology outing on one of the local commons at 1pm and decided to arrive early and look for fungi to photograph beforehand.  It was a fairly warm and still day and I followed a few small pathways on the edge of woodland thinking that most the fungi I had found so far were in a pretty poor condition, however I eventually found three different good specimens including this Fly agaric (Amanita mascara).

I managed to find my way back to the starting point for our small group of 6 doing the geology tour.  We didn't walk that far but not only did we find an interesting exposures of the Triassic "Bunter Series" Sandstone beds and the pebble beds we discussed the history of the area from Iron Age fort, the Prayer Book Rebellion to its more recent WW2 activity.  We also came across various WW2 old buildings, rifles ranges, foundations of mess huts, decontamination unit and two parade grounds.  At one point we were asked to identify the assortment of various rocks specimens collected from the area and sort them into artificial and natural.  We were fairly successful but the one piece we all thought was artificial because the shape of it looked like part of a brick or piece of pottery was natural.  We walked over to this area and found these pieces where crystallisation had taken place between small gaps between the sandstone layers.  We also found small black 'dreikanter pebbles' wind born pebbles with three or more smooth edges or faces and some sandstone pieces with deep red and yellow parts that it is thought may have been used by prehistoric men and women for cave paintings or face / body painting.   A very informative day and we also found some more good specimens of fungi.  I must revisit soon to remember the information and route walked.