Podcast: September fungi walk 🍄 I'm getting into more of a routine of recording and editing audio, so here is the latest episode of Unlocking Landscapes. Listen on Podbean or via the usual platforms. Also via YouTube: Following on from July's rather optimistic fungi walk, I popped back to the same…

Shaggy scalycap Colgate, West Sussex, August 2025 In August I was perusing the woods in hope of some late summer shrooms. In these dry periods (August usually has rain, but not this year) it's best to look for large dead or decaying wood. And so it proved. I passed a large fallen pine trunk that…

A photographic tour of Innsbruck's architecture and some of the surrounding peaks

Some dried-out mushrooms from late August

Postcards from Western Ireland, September 2025 🇮🇪 I'm back from my annual visit to the west of Ireland. I managed a couple of day trips to forage for photos, which will crystallise later this year into dedicated posts, all being well. Like many people I enjoy the Blind Boy Podcast, none more so…

England is one of the most diverse countries in the world (typified by London's long history of migrant communities) which actually makes it a great place to discuss fungi with people.

Spindleshank in Handcross Handcross, West Sussex, August 2025 Happy Fungi Friday! 🍄 It's that time of year when spindleshank is popping up at the toes of oaks that are not too healthy. I was in Handcross (technically Slaugham Parish) when I spotted my first spindleshanks of the year. They get…

Late summer timbers at the Weald & Downland Museum In August I made my annual visit to the Weald and Downland Living Museum in the South Downs. You can see my timber-framed building photo gallery here. This is the first view you encounter inside the museum grounds after you pay your entry fee.…

Austrian Alps: up and down Schafberg Welcome to a big blog of sunny alpine images, from my walking highlight of the year so far.

Tuberous polypore in Colgate 31st July 2025, Colgate, West Sussex The Parish of Colgate is a very wooded part of West Sussex and so it's one of my 'go-to' locations when the season is upon us. This was a quite optimistic walk around a large area of ancient woodland and pine plantation. It was a…

Going to Battle (the village) Not that kind of battle, but instead to the village in East Sussex. Battle the village is the site of one of the major battles of the Norman Conquest of England of 1066, when the Normans invaded Britain and defeated the Anglo-Saxons. It's a period in history that…

Summer boletes in East Grinstead East Court, East Grinstead (near Ashplatts Wood), July 2025 The summer bolete season is in full swing in West Sussex. Last week I found these large boletes in a little bit of woodland next to a lane. They were under oak. I turned one of the mushrooms over to check…

Reading the First World War It's been more than 20 years since I studied First World War fiction in sixth form college. It remains some of my favourite reading and has dominated my book consumption of late, so here's a run-through of my adventures in this very challenging area of literature and…

Chicken of the woods Horsham, West Sussex, July 2025 Happy Fungi Friday! 🍄 My wife sent me a photo while she was out for a walk with friends and asked, what's this? It was this. This is a massive old boundary oak stump next to a cricket pitch. There was a game going on at the time actually, but…

Austrian Alps: wildflowers on Zwölferhorn A walk atop Zwölferhorn (1522m) in the Salzkammergut mountains of the Austrian Alps.

Satan’s bolete, or not? Horsham, West Sussex, July 2025 Happy Fungi Friday! 🍄 The other day, I noticed some mushrooms growing in short grassland underneath a copper beech tree (Fagus sylvatica) on a main road. It's a slither of green that I've inspected before and found Amanitas. At first thought…

Mushroom help required please! Is this Satan's bolete (Rubroboletus satanas)? Found in Horsham town yesterday. @sussexwildlife.bsky.social #Fungi #MushroomID

The ash tree’s survival I noticed some good news about ash trees recently and wanted to share my experience of a difficult decade for the European ash (Fraxinus excelsior, referred to here as 'ash'), as well as some of the photos I've taken of this iconic tree.

Podcast: summer fungi walk Earlier this week I went for a short walk around part of the Sussex Weald to see if any mushrooms had popped up. Podcast: summer fungi walk Here's a repost of my fungi walk podcast I produced this week! Search for Unlocking Landscapes on all the non-BBC podcast…

Putin's illegal war of aggression against Ukraine is ruining Russia

Mushrooms need rain, warmth and moisture to thrive, and after a downpour earlier in the day I thought it might be worth having a look

Wasps vs. spiders This post is generally wasps and spiders, with some lovely little bees to calm you down afterwards.

Fungus spore cloud – video Happy Fungi Friday! 🍄 The most amazing thing, though maybe not for my lungs. On Wednesday evening (9/7/25) I went for a walk at my closest woodland Narnia. It was evening, the sun was slanting through the trees. It was beautiful. I approached a fallen beech tree that I…

How does Netanyahu explain this atrocity? www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...

Currently working on series of #FungiFriday blog posts about mushrooms by country. Does anyone have any info on mushrooms in Wales? I have a lot of ecology info but struggling to find anything cultural, or related to the Welsh language. Thank you :-) #WelshFungi #WelshMushrooms

Repost: Why do Slavic cultures love mushrooms? This is a post first published on my personal website in August 2020. I'm posting it here today to celebrate its sort of fifth birthday. In the last 24 hours hundreds of people in Russia have been reading this, I don't know why.

Tiny bees everywhere On 16th May there were lots of small bees to be found in my garden

For #FungiFriday - some thoughts on the a little bit of #mycophobia: wp.me/pf0miX-ug

Bumbling up Onto the 15th May 2025, when the bumblebees were beginning to increase as the workers emerged. But we won't begin there. The path to my house is overhung by a self-seeded willow sapling (probably to the annoyance of the postman). One morning I noticed the twigs held a cluster of…

Postcard from the Alps 🏞️ No normal blog post this week as I've been away in the Austrian Alps, and am behind on my macro processing. I did manage to take some macro photos high above the treeline, and saw lots of species of insects in the time we were up there. Will look forward to sharing those…

Mason bees closing doors Around 9th May 2025 the red mason bees were working to seal their little chambers shut, as can be seen below. 2024 was a better year for these solitary bees in my garden, with far fewer in 2025. Their numbers will naturally rise and fall over the years. They're important…

Just to remind people listening to RTÉ's report on the destruction of Irish sprat stocks (the basic food for many other fish) that most sprat go into fishmeal to feed farmed fish. Salmon farming is a major part of the problem. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/m...

“Imagine flattening an irreplaceable grade I listed building like the Royal Albert Hall, replacing it with karaoke machines in various towns & then telling the public this is a ‘win-win’ for architecture & music” - brutally accurate analogy from @ruthtingay.bsky.social @wildjustice.bsky.social

"Imagine flattening an irreplaceable grade I listed building like the Royal Albert Hall, replacing it with karaoke machines in various towns and then telling the public this is a ‘win-win’ for architecture and music." @ruthtingay.bsky.social on threats to wildlife www.theguardian.com/environment/...

May has been a very productive month for macro photos for me, especially in my garden.

Musk should be asked about this in every interview he does now and forever. To ignore it is a dereliction of duty. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/o...

Sainfoin and snails on Box Hill Box Hill, Surrey, May 2025 Last week I made an evening return to a landscape that is well-represented on this blog - the North Downs. I had a lens with me that focuses very closely, though it wasn't a proper macro lens. When we topped the mighty Hill I noticed a…

Excited to find tree lungwort growing on hazel today at Emsworthy Mire in Devon - the only time I’ve seen this now-rare lichen on hazel outside the west coast of Scotland (and possibly the Dizzard). A tiny patch of Atlantic hazelwood?

Early mining bee Early one morning before work I noticed a little bee resting on some raspberry leaves in my garden. I grabbed my camera from the house and got some photos.

Podcast: is ivy good or bad for trees? I've started recording episodes again for my podcast Unlocking Landscapes. The latest episode is one about ivy and trees, a subject I find very interesting - I know a lot of people do.

Every time I find King Alfred’s Cakes (Daldinia concentrica) I look for the Cramp-ball Fungus Weevil (platyrhinus resinosus). They feed and breed on this fungi. I rarely find them… so when I do it’s so exciting! Remarkable creatures. @lukaslarge.bsky.social #weevil

Food security experts warn Gaza at ‘critical risk of famine’ amid Israeli blockade

Brontë country to become protected national nature reserve

Rhinoceros beetle on Dartmoor 🦏 I spent the end of April in Dartmoor National Park, but not quite staying on Dartmoor as the initiated would say.

Eye-opening graph. The biggest wildfire incidents in the UK don't occur when it's hottest, in high summer: they take place in April - *when landowners set fire to their grouse moors & lose control of burns.* Time to ban moorland burning. Source: www.iucn-uk-peatlandprogramme.org/sites/defaul...

Fascinating analysis from @guyshrubsole.bsky.social on land ownership in the South Downs whoownsengland.org/2025/05/07/w...

This National Walking Month, take the path less travelled. (But like… still stay on the marked trail. The wildlife thanks you.) 📷 @djgwild.bsky.social 📍 Fulking Escarpment

The round-headed rampion aka the Pride of Sussex. A species of late spring/early summer, we'll have to wait a few more weeks before they make their appearance. 📷 @djgwild.bsky.social

The Great Shame of the twenty-first century unfolding before our eyes: www.theguardian.com/world/live/2...