If you go down to the woods today you'll never believe your eyes.

WOW! I never knew there were so many types of mushroom growing in our woods. I certainly didn't know that there were big red mushrooms with white spots like the one in my photograph. I thought that mushrooms like this were things of fairy tales, where fairies and gnomes sit.

But I found this flyagaric mushroom very close to our home in Durham and I just had to have a picture.

I have recently entered into a new relationship with a man who is quite knowledgeable about all things wild. My very own Hugh Fernley Whittingstall. We often walk in the countryside and through woodland in search of wild mushrooms. I have a childlike fascination in nature which, until now has not been fed. We have picked and dried many different varieties of fungi and I am amazed at how different each one tastes. We are very careful in identifying each one and only eat the ones which are very obviously edible.

On our walks we have picked big juicy blackberries, cobnuts, apples, wood sorell and mushrooms. It is wonderful to forage for food and bring it home to cook, so fresh and tasty. Wild blackberry pancakes for breakfast..... YUM.