Crystals in the woods

It’s another day of snow flurries and icy pavements, but we do get out - keeping to crisp, untrodden snow as we walk uphill, watching a couple of children using the icy road as a toboggan run! 

 It’s a return to the woods of last Sunday - a different world today, softened by snow, muddy paths crusted with ice. Somehow, in the snow-muffled air, birdsong seems clearer and more abundant. 

Today, I discover a different fungus growing on one tree, dusted  with snow. I can’t identify it, but I know one of my fellow blippers will set me straight! Crystals stand snow-white against the fungal redness, almost imitating fairy toadstools. 

It’s probably not quite cold enough to capture crisp individual crystal forms, but it seems worth an attempt at least. 

I’ve included a couple of other shots of the fungus to aid identification, as well as one of our road curling down into the town. The final extra was going to be today’s blip; a wood pigeon sitting on top of the bird feeder in the snow. I just love the expression on his face! Why is it always so hard to choose? 

Thanks to everyone who sent me kind thoughts yesterday. The worse part of the journey to the hospital was walking to the car - but I’m glad I wasn’t driving. It was so strange, however, walking through the deserted hospital. Corridors eerily quiet and empty, which must be such a contrast to what’s going on elsewhere in the building. The MRI itself was fine. 


I’ve