Friday, August 29, 2008

Sock it to me fungus and the 42 flowers

Here's where I'm up to with Pomatomus. The yarn is absolutely delightful to work with and I love the colours. The shade is called 'clover' and it really is the colour of red clover.

I'm enjoying the shell pattern too. Interestingly it's knit mostly on 3 needles to make it easier to accomodate the pattern and only changes to 5 after turning the heel.

It shouldn't take too long to finish now. This is my 3rd pair of socks and each time I've felt that it progresses really quickly after the heel. Not sure how much knitting I'll get done over the weekend as there's gardening stuff to do and I need to do a 20 mile run off-road on Sunday - the first of 3 in my schedule prior to the Beachy Head marathon in October.

Now for the fungus foray! It's definitely autumn now as they are popping up all over the place.

This one is definitely a Boletus of some description. I think it's Boletus edulis, commonly known as a Cep or Penny Bun and popular for commercial use, dried and used for flavouring in soups. I wouldn't eat it as I am uncertain and some Boletus can cause tummy upset.

It's about 7cm across and is growing in grass under an oak tree.

These are another Boletus - versicolor and are a gorgeous shade of red/brown. They are about 4cm across and are growing near the other Boletus.

There were others around but they had been nibbled by goodness knows what!



I put my clog in the photo to show the size of these beauties. They are Horse Mushrooms (Agaricus arvensis) which is an appropriate name as they are popping up all over the horses' paddock. They soon get nibbled by the wildlife.

The largest one is 15cm across. Aren't they magnificent?!

So where are the 42 flowers? They are wildflowers that I spotted on one of my runs during the week. I often amuse myself with spotting things en-route as it helps pass the time. I tried hard to recall all their latin names but had to resort to common names for several of them.

4 comments:

Marina said...

Is it me or does your clog look like a mummified thumb, black fingernail and all? I must be watching too much "Bones"!

The socks look great! I'm a bit jealous as to how mastered socks so quickly.

Carol said...

I've been doing the same thing during my runs! I actually stopped dead to look at a fern last week. Beautiful knitting too!

Oh, and Rhinebeck is a big fiber festival in Rhinebeck NY in October. Lots of displays, sheep dog trials, sheep. Check it out here: http://www.sheepandwool.com/

Susie Hewer said...

Marina, tee hee, it does rather! Or you could say it looks like my toe a few days after a marathon. LOL.

Carol, thanks for that. I'll go and take a look. I see so much when out running and I always have to stop and get a closer look. It's no wonder I take so long!

Linda said...

Susie, I have a couple of questions regarding donations for the October run. Could you email me at lindaphillips06@gmail.com?

I also thought it was a mummified thumb...just proves I should read first and look second.
The socks are lovely and I haven't made the monkey socks yet so you aren't the last person...second to last maybe. Now I'll have to make them for sure.