It is incredible how a particular season in the wood varies from year to year. This year the woodland floor is like a flowerbed in places, with bunches of mushrooms springing up in place of blooms. Although the fungal variety of other years has not yet been realised, the shapes we are seeing are quite unique. This week, I hope I can show you some of the things that we stop to admire as we walk round the wood, making the most of the last days of summer.
These mushrooms were growing on the underside of a log – as we lifted the log, the mushrooms were turned upside down and the intricate delicate gills exposed. 
This year’s mushrooms seem so prolific. 
Rowan berries provide a splash of colour. 
It’s hard to judge scale, but these mushrooms are at least 20cm across. 
These mushrooms are quite high off the ground, in the crook of the old coppice stool. 
A lovely red hue. 
The bright berries of lords-and-ladies. 
A bolete mushroom – these mushrooms have pores rather than gills on the underside of the cup and relatively thick stems. 
Tiny mushrooms erupting through the bark of a fallen tree. 
These delicate mushrooms are a lovely inky grey colour. They add a touch of elegance to the woodland floor. 
Not sure I like these exactly – eyeballs on stalks perhaps. 
Frills on the deadwood.
Bunches of mushrooms spread back into the wood following the line of an old rotten trunk, barely visible now. 
These tiny mushrooms remind me of stone plants as they emerge through the soil. 
Coconut husk? 
Waiting to ripen. 
Fairy parasols. 
We like the frilly stems of these mushrooms. 
If you look closely you can just see the spider that is using this mushroom to support its webs. It is hanging upside down beneath the right hand side of the mushroom. 
Our yellow flower garden. 
The mushrooms towards the front of the photograph here are so laden with released spores, it is like they have been dusted in icing sugar. 
Tucked in at the base of the tree.
Speckled wood butterfly enjoying the late summer sun.
Trees of Sanctuary 