Autumn is here....

Finally Autumn is... and so far it has been a hectic one!! I have led three tours in the Cotswolds and two in Cornwall! We have also been looking out plenty of walks and potential tours in places such as Snowdonia and also maybe heading up to the West Highlands of Scotland. I have also now had my graduation ceremony and can now put BSc (Hons) after my name guilt free, it was a good day I got to see all my friends and find out what they are up to as well as wearing a silly hat!!!!

I am going off on a tangent though as the reason for this blog was to talk about the wonderful autumnal colour which we are enjoying at the moment, all the woods and paths have a wonderful golden glow! Today we went on a 'photo finding' trip to the New Forest National Park (our closest national park) to try and find some interesting fungi and do some 'leaf peeping'. We did find some wonderful toadstools and fungi but also some rather interesting history!

The Rufus Stone to commemorate the location of the death of William Rufus (King William II).

 The New Forest was a chase and royal hunting forest during the Normans and it was in the New Forest in 1100ad that while hunting King William II was killed by a glancing arrow shot by Sir Walter Tyrrell. The story goes that Sir Walter was aiming at a stag and when he shot the arrow glanced off a huge oak and landed in the kings chest killing him instantly.... I feel that this may have been the perfect excuse for an assassination but it still makes a wonderful story and Sir Walter lends his name to a rather lovely pub so he can't have been all that bad!!

The Holly is really beginning to colour up almost perfect for making Christmas garlands etc!!
Amethyst Deciever edible when cooked but not advised as the flavour really is not worth it!!
This is a Sickener (real name alert!) obviously do NOT eat!!!
This is a Buttercap.  
  

So obviously there are some rather lovely toadstools in the New Forest at the moment and some of them are rather pretty.... if slighly poisonous!!
 
Just to finish off a rather lovely autumn sunset taken from above Longleat the other evening.
All in all it is turning into a lovely autumn and is definitely one of my favourite times to go out and play with my camera!





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