
Saturday, 28 August 2010
emperor moth caterpillar
Sunday, 22 August 2010
agaricus xanthodermus

acorn knopper gall


Saturday, 21 August 2010
giant puffball


Wild mushroom soup
1.5 lb of fresh wild mushrooms (i.e. whole of this monster!) sauteed in butter and olive oil with two finely chopped onions and some garlic and thyme. A bit of flour added along with nutmeg and seasoning. Liquid added in form of 3 pints of chicken stock and a glug of sherry. Just over an oz of dried ceps (porcini) added in and the whole lot simmered for 20 minutes or so before being biltzed with a hand blender and some Elmlea cream added to taste... enough to serve 6-8 people
chicken of the woods pie



Sunday, 25 July 2010
wild cherries
Wednesday, 21 July 2010
Sunday, 18 July 2010
maple bladdergalls

Thursday, 15 July 2010
tree bumblebee nest and wax moths
Our tree bumblebees have gone thanks to Wax moths, Aphomia sociella. I was not sure what was going on having never seen inside a bumblebee nest, but the nest went very quiet in mid July and so Rupert had a peep, the lid of the nestbox was stuck down quite tight with silky threads and there were white grubs/caterpillars amongst the threads. One or two bees were still hanging around and Rupert is pretty sure that one squirted him with something in defence - enough to make him get down the ladder quick and not to want to return to take a photo! At first we thought they must be bee grubs, but knowing bees don’t make silk it seemed a bit odd… so a bit of a search and it seems that it must have been these moths, or their caterpillars at least. According to www.bumblebee.org in northern
Sunday, 27 June 2010
tree bumblebee nest

Sunday, 28 March 2010
rosemary leaf beetles
