Yellow brain fungus, Tremella mesentrica on gorse Some five years ago I found yellow brain fungus on a dead branch at the heart of a gorse bush where linnet nest. It was January, and a month later I returned to see the jelly fungus deliquescent and dripping down the branch, some lobes translucent white. Each year I return to see how the fungus fares. It is confined to a single branch at the heart of the bush and I find it on none of the surrounding gorse. Earlier in the morning, I returned to the ash by the trig point on Scout Scar but the ridge was in shadow so the fungus was hard to see.
Rain was in the air and inky cloud ran into the blue. Sometimes a distant peak showed in sunlight, then shadow swept it up and consumed it. There was a misty magic, a volatility that eludes photography. Once again, I'm drawn to that farmstead down in the Lyth Valley as it gleams in light and is lost to darkness. The mood changes in a moment and somewhere I glimpse a story that slips away as the light fades. It is beguiling.
By the Scout Scar trig point, I remembered the ash intertwined with holly where I'd found Tremella mesentrica a couple of weeks ago. There has been rain during the week and the fungus responds to hydration. The ridge was gloomy and I could only see the fungus because I knew it was there.
Walking down the dip slope, I remembered the gorse where I've found it previously and went to look. The joy of yellow brain fungus is the bright splash of colour in January and February. Wow! The dead wood flowers with beautiful petals of jelly. I know this spot intimately. On the cover of Cumbrian Contrasts there's a beautiful photograph of a wheatear I took here. And of a juvenile cuckoo being fed by its tiny foster parent. Last spring I took lovely photographs of linnet. Soon, they'll return here to breed. So will the lesser redpoll. My mission this spring is to improve on my lesser redpoll images. There's a short window of opportunity, when the birds return and before the trees are in leaf. Lesser redpoll are nervous birds and they don't pose for photographs, so I have to be canny.
By the Scout Scar trig point, I remembered the ash intertwined with holly where I'd found Tremella mesentrica a couple of weeks ago. There has been rain during the week and the fungus responds to hydration. The ridge was gloomy and I could only see the fungus because I knew it was there.
Walking down the dip slope, I remembered the gorse where I've found it previously and went to look. The joy of yellow brain fungus is the bright splash of colour in January and February. Wow! The dead wood flowers with beautiful petals of jelly. I know this spot intimately. On the cover of Cumbrian Contrasts there's a beautiful photograph of a wheatear I took here. And of a juvenile cuckoo being fed by its tiny foster parent. Last spring I took lovely photographs of linnet. Soon, they'll return here to breed. So will the lesser redpoll. My mission this spring is to improve on my lesser redpoll images. There's a short window of opportunity, when the birds return and before the trees are in leaf. Lesser redpoll are nervous birds and they don't pose for photographs, so I have to be canny.
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