Scuppered!

It was my first day back in lectures yesterday.  I was tired, back to 6.30 starts again, and sore!  PES on Tuesday found a few muscles I hadn't used for a while! So starting at nine yesterday morning, I had four lectures back to back.  No breaks, just enough time to get from one to the next! Ye, I know, poor student having to sit around for four hours, but with three brand new modules introduced and our first assignment set, it was hard to concentrate.  The new modules are;

Land Use:  Most of our land use in this country is agriculture, so this module will be a lot of that!

People & the Countryside:  This covers everything from legal stuff, to funding.  May be a bit boring at times, but useful stuff to know.

British Habitats:  This is the one I am really looking forward to.  We'll be studying all the different types of habitat, what they mean and what's happening to them.

Our first assignment is a presentation on agriculture for Land Use. Shouldn't be too bad to do, easy enough, but shocked to have been given it in the first lecture!

On Thursdays I am meant to have a lecture, but I've told them I won't be going in.  Because I have to commute, an hour each way on the bus, I have to leave the house at 7.15 every morning and don't get back until 5, and some days 7.  It's not worth giving up my whole day for a one hour lecture.   Lectures are recorded so I can catch up with what I have missed tomorrow morning, before lectures start again.

So my plan today was to get out and about, maybe try and find some more Oyster mushrooms in the woods, to start a big outdoor straw bed.  But the weather is awful, the wind is howling a gale, and I'm not sure that the woods would be the best place right now.  I'll see if it improves at all, but in the meantime, there is plenty of other interesting things I can do!

Still Room for Mushrooms

OH has cracked a rib and is lots of pain.  We were planning a walk up Cadair Idris yesterday, but he was unable to carry his pack, so we had to abort.  Today we managed a short walk in the woods.

At first it seemed that due to our climate there were no mushrooms left to find, but before long brackets of all types seemed to appear.  Then the more we looked, the more we found.  No Jelly Ears, to my disappointment, but a brand new find for me, Elf Cups!
Not sure if they are Scarlet or Ruby, but they are Elf Cups all the same.  The brand new ones were just mm across!  They grow to about a maximum of 7cm when fully expanded.  Just as well they are the colour they are, much easier to spot!  They grow on fallen hardwood and are often surrounded by moss, making them harder to see.

I also found plentiful Birch Polypore, and have learnt that although bitter, it can be brewed into a tea which is very good for the immune system.  I might have to make up a winter brew.  Maybe with some berries added to it for sweetness.