Grisettes are lumped into the genus Amanita along with the death cap and the fly agaric, but can be distinguished from most other amanitas by the distinctly toothed margin of their caps.
I found this terrapin at dusk in mid January, hauled out by the side of a river that was swollen by a hydro-electric dam venting a short distance upstream. I had already seen another terrapin swimming off through the turbid waters as I investigated the river bank near El Chorro, Andalucia.
Having been caught unawares, this terrapin decided to stay perfectly still and wait for me to go away, rather than making a dash for the river. I suspect that the rapidly changing water level in the stream had left it higher up the bank than it would usually have chosen to be.
While larches can grow straight, they also have the potential to become really quite gnarly.
Most older larches in this part of Scotland are European Larches, while most newer plantings are Japanese Larches. The two are not that easy to distinguish, and cross breed to produce intermediate hybrids.
This fungus is common on dead conifer trunks hereabouts. It has delicate lilac tints when fresh, though soon bleaching white.
There are some interesting forms in this photograph caused by the tree-trunk falling while the fungus continues to grow: the older brackets have been rotated to the vertical, subsequently developing new horizontal 'buds' along their edges.
I wrote a novel for National Novel Writing Month, November 2010!
It is set in the Monsteca universe - a strange place populated entirely by robots and monsters.
You can read it if you like. It's called "Monster Hunters' Paradise" and is available as a text file eBook here: Monster Hunters' Paradise
Or, if you are more interested in a prehistoric fantasy than monsters-and-robots sci-fi, by all means try my previous NaNoWriMo effort - "Eagle Claws and Old Bone" here: Eagle Claws and Old Bone
Do have a look at the nanowrimo website - it's an amazing concept.
And many thanks to all at the Raggedy Hopefuls writers group without whose encouragement I probably wouldn't be writing at all.
Nothing too unusual for the first one - just a nicely weathered gate post, with the old hinge popped in the handy storage space rotted into the top. More lichenous posts to follow!
A lot of my favourite trees are beeches, this one is at the bottom of a field, growing where all the stones that have been cleared from the soil were dumped. Glen Fyne, Cowal.
Dewdrops adding a little extra sparkle to what is already a very pretty little mushroom. From a small patch growing on my front lawn in Kilmun. Photo date: 7th November 2010.