Its often surprising how we meet unexpected coincidences.
This short story starts on the Sunday after the Foray into the woods. During the clearing up in the Village Hall, after the expert identification display, I saved some of the specimens from the rubbish bin and filled a bag to take home. I could tell that my wife and a friend who was visiting us were both very impressed when I emptied my bag of damp, quite smelly and suspiciously poisonous looking fungi to show them what I had found. Unfortunately I couldn't identify more than one or two. However the next day we had arranged to visit the RHS Rosemoor Garden and we felt sure they would have a guide to fungi in their bookshop. Which they did and so putting my new field guide in my pocket we set off to tour the rose gardens and woodlands. To my surprise I found that there was also a significant number of fungi growing amongst the formal display. I have never before noticed such a display in a formal garden. I was quite happy to spend the next hour or two peering under and round the roses taking photographs some of which are shown in this post. Returning home I was able to start trying to put a name to the rest of my haul from the previous day.
