Geoff Duncan

I've been waiting somewhat impatiently for the sun to poke out while the Japanese maple is doing its autumn-in-scarlet routine…but, sadly, this year the weather hasn't been cooperative, offering up heaps of rain to make up for an unusually dry summer, but squandering the direct sunlight by which one might, perchance, capture the maple doing its ruddy ritual. So I'm afraid this will have to do:

However, the rain has brought other visitors to the neck of the woods occupied by the Japanese maple: veritable toadstools of the sort one usually only sees in children's books and faerie tales, with little elflings and gnomes cavorting on or under them while pixie dust glitters in the air:

I'm personally referring to them as the "outdoor feta cheese mini pizzas," but they seem to be amanita muscaria, a common variety of mushroom also known as fly agaric. We seem to have a small herd of them developing on the southeast chunk of the lot:

The toadstools aren't the only fungi expressing themselves this year: if you peer carefully between the budding toadstools next to the front walk, you'll see these tiny little fellows:

No idea what they might be…but if you look carefully, you can almost see the gnomes and pixies dancing.