Octopus Stinkhorn

A lot of wet walking today. First the early walk with the spaniel for an hour and a half then home at 9 and straight back out as it was my turn to check the boundary fences and gates of the common (a seven mile trek). After that I had to search for the 15 Exmoor ponies which, with 500 acres to cover, can take quite some time when they aren't in their usual haunts. Got home at 2 just as we had another power cut so I headed straight back out with the spaniel for his afternoon walk. I made the mistake of wearing wellies all day so now my legs feel stiff. Best things today were finding a group of scarlet wax caps and an unopened clathrus archeri. I'll check the records tonight but I don't think the the scarlet waxcap has been found on the common before and I've never seen one one in December. As for the clathrus archeri - this is the first time I've found the egg-like structure at this stage. It looks like a small earth ball but as the outer layer peels back you can see the jelly like substance and the classic 'octopus' arms (or devil's fingers). See blips of 11 December and 11 October for fully opened examples.