Today we visited Old Sulehay NR, spending time in both Stonepit Close and the forest. In the midst of winter it often seems that there is little wildlife around, but it's surprising what can be found by looking under stones or peering closely at logs. In the end we had found a good selection of species that are normally overlooked, partly because most of them are very small! This tiny fungus was one of my favourites. It's a Smoked Oysterling, which sounds as though it ought to be tasty but as it was about 0.5 cm across, I don't think it would be worth the effort!


In the evening we used up the remains of our Christmas Day venison in a delicious pie, and followed this with the last of the Christmas sticky toffee pudding. I don't think we're going to have any wasted food this year - though I'm not sure whether this is a consequence of careful planning or just greed!