A day of two halves

A complete joyous walk with Ella and Rosie first off for a mushroom hunt, I have never seen so many mushrooms growing ever! We are very picky about the ones we are happy to eat, the boletes are v easy to identify so we mainly look for them. We were a few weeks late for the prime picks- many enormous ceps, the king of the mushroom world, had already been nibbled at by a variety of animals. We found one spot where it looked like there had been a mushroom rave, massive bits of stems everywhere. We managed to find enough for us both to have a hearty mushroom dinner tonight though and will get there earlier next year. We were all as very happy as anything.

Then home to the devastating but not unexpected news that my friend Jo only has a few weeks to live. What started off as breast cancer less than three years ago is now not responding to any treatment. I used to work with Jo, she sat next to me when I started my last job in the distant days of 2004 and we have kept in touch since we went our separate ways. She always lived in horror of bad manners and that people would think her rude, she basically sent me a beautiful thank you message today which made me smile and cry at the same time. I had just been thinking of her because we had made plans for me to visit her tomorrow, I’m not going now. She has two lovely little boys and is 43. It’s just fucking awful.

I have many pictures of the massive mushrooms. This shot just seemed better.