My second post from the pine plantation – the light was difficult as it was very dark with bright patches of sunlight and as everything was so low to the ground I had to hand hold hence the ISO is high. In the hole of the right hand toadstool is a tiny orange maggot – a home and a meal in one 🙂
It’s late autumn here, we have had rain and so the fungi are out 🙂 🙂 Today I went again to the pine plantation to see what was there and ended up taking lots of pairs of toadstools images.  This is the first of a mini series of posts – I hope you enjoy!
Autumn is the time for fungi which I love, but it has been very dry here so the fungi are not as abundant as usual.  We did have some rain last week and so I searched through the pine plantation and did find a few.  This one was upside down, broken by some creature – I was drawn by the texture of the decaying gills and the numerous tiny bugs feasting away – the wonderful cycle of nature 🙂
It has been so dry here, in reality since last September.  Finally over the weekend we got the first of the autumn/winter storms so hopefully some rain is returning.  Whilst I was grateful for the rain, it was not so good for taking images so I ended up mooching about on the back deck during the sunny spells and saw the rain drops on this daisy type plant 🙂
Hello again to everyone!  A good harvest is safely in (our earliest ever) and now it seems  autumn may be early – everything is out of step.  I took this image yesterday, the Avenue of Honour in Macedon.  I’ve taken an image of this road before (click for link), last time in spring on my converted Nikon D90 in near infrared.  I may be a week too soon for the colours but still very beautiful 🙂
I live near  Mount Macedon where there are a lot of houses with beautiful gardens (most are more like parks, being acres in size) that were planted in the late 19th Century, landscaped with beautiful northern hemisphere trees and plants.  They are often open to the public in spring and autumn.  Last month I visited one and saw this huge and wonderful old Beech tree, its crown in full autumn glory 🙂
I must say I do admire people who post daily – it’s a huge effort!  Well, here is day 3…I liked these specimens for their elegance. I went back a second time after it had been raining and did enjoy lying on my stomach in very wet undergrowth, delighting in this ‘other world’ of such diverse and delicate beauty 🙂
This is the second in my mini series of autumn fungi from the pine plantation floor.  This one most people will know as a ‘fly agaric’ or  Amanita muscaria.  The image from yesterday is, I believe, a more mature example.  As I’m sure for many, this to me conjures up childhood imaginings from fairy tale books.  Taken in late afternoon light 🙂
Hello everyone 🙂  I apologise as once again I am behind with my reader!  I find a change in the seasons always brings fresh inspiration as new things forgotten for the past year re-appear.  For me this autumn has been all about fungi and I have been exploring the huge pine plantation near where I live after a ‘tip off’ from my friend Evan.  I have decided to do a daily series of different fungi, I’m afraid my knowledge as to their names is largely non-existent, but I hope you enjoy 🙂  All taken with natural light, the ISO is high in them all but I feel grainy quality suits the mood of the autumn forest floor.
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