Slime Mould - Enteridium lycoperdon

So, slime moulds live in that half-way world that is neither animal or plant or fungi, neither a single entity or a multiple one. They slide into the spaces between how we think of things, they skirt round the catagories we invent to pin things down and when we name them, they change state and blow up in your face in a puff of smoky spores.  
This one's has just been trundling around like a gobbet of spit, swallowing dead stuff through mouths it makes in its skin and has come to rest, full and fat, on this dead alder tree. It could be enjoying the sunshine as this will dry it slightly and it can move on into its next state of being. I touched it - gently - and it felt like a just done Victoria sponge cake, smooth and springy. Inside, it will have started changing back from  liquidity into dry brown flour. Then it will burst and wind will distribute its spores. These will join to create a multinucleated cell and everything will start crawling off again.

Water in Crummock definitely warmer! A good 10 minute swim today. And after lunch, Eureka!, I hoisted the spinnaker on the Feva with all ropes, blocks and bungy intact and in place.