Walking the walk

Some people walk in order to wrestle with a problem, work out a plan, compose something or burn off calories.
I like to notice and observe. Even on a familiar route there's always something new to see as the seasons change and the cycle of life follows its natural course.

Here are 4 things I spotted on my walk today. Starting at the bottom left there are badger footprints in mud - notice the marks of the non-retractable claws.
Above that are gold-gleaming willow shoots springing up like free-form basketwork from the pleached (plaited) structure of a laid hedge.
Top right is a huge bracket fungus, Ganoderma applanatum, arcing out from the stump of an ash tree. It was so big (about 18 inches across) that at first I thought it was part of an old car tyre. It must have been growing there for years, as hard as wood and impervious to the weather.
Finally, I wonder if anyone can guess what this is? Woolly lumps arranged as if in the shape of a letter N - my initial! (Of the name I am mostly known by.) It's a fox turd, the result of dining on a dead sheep. The meat has been digested and the wool that was swallowed has been expelled thus. I think this has the potential for a new font (Faecal Sans perhaps?) A very pleasing discovery.