David

Two Japanese acers in a front garden, with leaves which had turned contrasting reddish colours for autumn, spotted before the wind began to denude the trees.

The dark red colour of this mushroom shows how the blusher got its common name. Usually found with a cap which is much plaer.

I was standing at the edge of West Park lake, watching the waterfowl. A young rat appeared from the undergrowth to mu right, scurried along the bank inches from my feet, and dived into the next patch of undergrowth by my left.

Boletes are mushrooms which release their spores through pores on the underside of their caps, not gills. This species have a symbiotic relationship with birch trees, as on the lawn in front of these flats.

One of the cherry trees planted on the roadside of a quiet street, with its leaves changing colour for the autumn. The leaves were already bdeginning to fall when I took this picture. A couple of days later they had all gone.

Shaggy scalycaps, mushrooms with an appearance which fits the name. These were growing at the base of a roadside apple tree. One clump looked like they had emerged the that night; the neighbouring clump the previous night.