Eight Wantz Way

Try saying that quickly! Haha, but apologies for being so childish. This is where we walked to within Hatfield Forest. Along the way we found that it is definitely fungi season.

The sunny ones at the top of my collage are Queen Boletes or Bronze Boletes, (Boletus aereus). Along with Ceps (Boletus edulis) they are considered to be amongst the most delicious mushrooms.

Also edible, but with a shelf life of only a few hours is the Shaggy Ink Cap, (Coprinus comatus), aka the Judges Wig. As it ages, and especially once picked, it starts to deliquesce (liquify) to a black ink. This can be used on absorbant paper but if the paper is shiny you'll need to fix the ink by adding cloves or urine :-/

The last handful I'm not sure of but I think they may be Destroying Angels (Aminita virose), in which case they're about as deadly as fungi can be. But I'm really not sure so if anyone knows better...

We also watched Tony play rugby this afternoon against Mill Hill School. It was a closely contested game, mostly well played, and just won by the College, but the opposition coach was setting an appalling example by berating the referee (not Peter!) at every whistle blow. It wasn't pretty and left a bad taste. One boy had a bad concussion but I'm glad to say he's fine now. It's such a tough physical game.