Not Much Room

A fine patch of common Cortinarius. This is a very broad genus, found all over the world, and embracing over 2,000 species. Without the mycorrhizal fungi there would be no plants, over 95% of which are known to be dependent on fungus to draw nutrients from the soil. No fungi, no plants; no plants, no animal life.

Whixall, 'twixt Wem & Whitchurch

Between Wem and Whitchurch is the widely spread village of Whixall. It is, despite its small population, one of the largest parishes in England. Water defines the place, that in the Shropshire Union Canal, on which lies Whixall Marina, and that in the surrounding mosses. Together, the Fenn's, Whixall, Bettisfield, Wem and Cadney Mosses form Britain's third largest lowland peat bog, and are home to a wide range of acid-tolerant flora, including 92 mosses and liverworts. Funghi addicts come here in autumn to hunt edible mushrooms. The back lanes are punctuated by numerous farmyards, each of which seems to be home to an interesting old tractor, truck or piece of 'junk.'

The Land That Time Forgot II

On the western side of Llynclys Hill, deep amongst the rampant ash saplings and mature silver birch, is an Austin A40 van, a restoration project 'in need of some finishing.' Whatever happened to those old-fashioned junk yards, full of toppling stacks of rusting cars, that, as a kid, one used to come across in the woods? No doubt the health and safety paranoiacs now insist that such yards are securely cordoned off behind weld-mesh fencing on dull industrial estates.

Another victim of the British obsession with 'health and safety' is the once-popular practice of locating and cooking wild fungi. The razor strop (Piptoporus betulinus) grows almost exclusively on birch. Unlike the beefsteak fungus, the razor strop - the cut surface of the fruiting body, the visible part of the fungus, was once used in forming the sharpest of razor edges - is inedible (it's not poisonous, just too woody). Dried, the fruiting body can though be used as tinder.

The Cabinet Maker

Len Pugh lives on Llynclys Hill, in a cottage surrounded by a variety of workshops, outbuildings and garages. In the last are stored the numerous Triumph Stags awaiting restoration by his son, Philip. In the first, ankle deep in shavings and sawdust, Len makes superb furniture, largely in oak. Cabinet maker extraordinaire, he can fashion anything one could want, in any style one could imagine. His favourite style is best described as classic Georgian - simple and enduring.

Len is a retiring man, modest about his abilities in the way that only the truly skilled are. The desk is a take on that of Samuel Pepys, in the Pepys Library at Magdalene College, Cambridge; and is made from both through-and-through and quarter-sawn oak, with a glazed cabinet at one end. The chair to go with it Len made from brown oak, wood from a tree lived upon by the beefsteak fungus (Fistulina hepatica), which draws its nutrients from, and passes its waste back into, the tree's sapwood. This waste reacts with the tannins in the tree and changes the colour of the oak from pale to dark brown.