Septemblog: Friends, a forest and some fungi

Following on from the summer trend, September quickly turned into yet another whirlwind of a month.

I'll talk all about the changes that moving to Cheltenham for university has thrown up in my next post, but first I want to return to the subject of my recent travels, and a weekend that was spent with some friends in Canterbury, Kent.

One drizzly Sunday evening just a couple of weeks ago I hopped on a train northwards from St. Pancras station; still-warm, homemade vegan pumpkin pie in tow. That night my friends and I would end up having a sort of pre-Halloween celebration, settling down in front of the TV with frothy oat milk coffee, popcorn and said pie, to watch Hocus Pocus and then some spooky documentaries. Some toasted pumpkin seeds, all that remained of a fine gourd that had only just been reduced to a hearty soup, also featured amongst our spread. Munchkin pumpkins, plants and Halloween books added to the creepy feel.

Whether actual Halloween night lives up to that evening remains to be seen, but a pumpkin carving session was sorely missed. We were all up fairly early the next morning, dressed and fuelled ready for an adventure in a nearby woodland. Our intention: to find some fungi. Wind rocked the branches above our heads, and so we had to proceed with caution. Although a thunderstorm was forecast, it never quite reached us and we returned to the house just as a few spots of rain began to hit us. We planned to head into the historic town of Canterbury that afternoon, so had some lunch while we waited for the shower to pass. The homemade pumpkin and black bean soup (or pumpkin and beetle soup, as I insisted on calling it) went down a treat coupled with a few slices of fresh bread.

Inside the Chaucer Bookshop

Identifying all the different types of mushroom we'd found took time, but it was the perfect way in which to occupy ourselves whilst sat in a cosy-looking local cafe. Our second coffee stop was made in the local Waterstones café', where I sat and enjoyed a lovely matcha latte and flicked through the pages of some books that had caught my interest whilst I'd been wandering through the store. We dropped into a number of independent shops, including the traditional Chaucer Bookshop, before going for some dinner at an amazing gastropub with resident cats and an entirely plant-based menu.

So what exactly did we find on our fungi foray? Well, one of us managed to sniff out a Stinkhorn (Phallus impudicus), and an unmissable splash of luminous yellow by the trackside turned out to be a cluster of Sulphur Tuft mushrooms (Hypholoma fasciculare). A bulbous Orange Birch Bolete (Leccinum versipelle) stood tall and proud amongst the leaf litter, and a Shaggy Inkcap (Coprinus comatus) lay upon a nearby patch of forest floor, uprooted. A couple of Common Puffballs (Lycoperdon perlatum) were unmistakeable, but we had quite a bit of trouble telling a mass of False Chanterelles (Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca) apart from their 'true' cousins. Also spotted was the Wrinkled Shield mushroom (Pluteus phlebophorus), the Red-Cracked Bolete (Xerocomellus chrysenteron) and a couple of other non-distinct species that we didn't manage to identify.

Common Puffball (Lycoperdon perlatum)

Orange Birch Bolete (Leccinum versipelle)

False Chanterelle (Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca)

I'd never been on a mushroom hunt before, and I was astounded by the sheer number of species we spotted in such a short amount of time. Provided you head out when the conditions are right, it makes for one of the most interesting autumn activities. Not only can you find fungi, but you can also forage for a whole array of forest treasures such as leaves, acorns, mosses, horse chestnuts and just about anything else you can find. 

Nature, bookshops, an excess of pumpkin, spooky celebrations, cute cafés, and good friends. I had a wonderful couple of days.