We love our countryside walks – we find them restorative and uplifting. In fact, the abundance of paths and trails on the doorstep was a big factor when deciding to buy this new house. Each season has its own charms… and now it’s the turn of autumn. Misty mornings, stunning leaf colours, fruits, berries and of course, mushrooms.

After a heavy night’s rain, we woke up to the sun breaking through on Saturday morning, so we headed out. We have lots of woodland close by, and the open access allowed by Welsh Forestry is fabulous. We saw buzzards, red kites – and a gorgeous hare that was nestling down in the track-side grass – who, sensing us watching him, shot off through the dense trees like a pale ghost.

It was also perfect conditions for fungi & mushrooms – and our walk was punctuated by some lovely specimens of which we duly took pictures.

We’re getting a little better at identifying the different species… although we’ve got a long way to go. We think our sightings included Yellow Stagshorn, Ochre Brittlegill, Common Earthball, Peziza Badia and the unmistakeable Fly Agaric to name a few. Please feel free to fill in any gaps in our mushroom knowledge (or mistaken identities!).

These little jewels of colour, shape and texture are such a joy. It’s amazing that all these different types of fungi were photographed in a relatively small area, on the same day.

And when we got home, our new Esse kitchen range (installed on Thursday) was chuffing away. We had freshly brewed coffee – and bacon sandwiches/cheese toasties respectively – what a joy after a couple of months with no cooker. The perfect end to a wonderful morning!