red and white

We had a lovely FaceTime call from Luke and Laura this morning;  they are on holiday in Chamonix. The sky was cloudless and blue and the mountains looked beautiful in the background. They were planning to take the cable car up to the Aiguille du Midi. I remembered when I was thereabout 40 years ago - D had climbed Mont Blanc with some friends, I took the train to Chamonix to meet him and we bivvied in a pine forest. Happy days.

I went on my own forest walk today -w hat I meant to be a quick saunter turned into a longer one because of the fascinating fungi I discovered lurking under the conifers. If this one (Amanita muscaria) was edible, I would have had enough to eat for weeks. I kept discovering more and more of them, each bigger and better than the last. There were also edible mushrooms - including some amazing specimens of Boletus edulis (Penny Bun) which I shall put as an extra. I didn't pick any of them - D is cooking the tea tonight :-)

I spent some time outside tin the garden this afternoon, collecting more apples and planting out some lettuces and cavolo nero in the hope that the warm weather will last a little longer. It began to rain at about 3pm so I'm back indoors now..