Last Sunday we donned our wellies and waterproofs, braved the stormy weather and headed to the woods. Some excercise and blowing away of cobwebs was needed... to breathe some fresh air and to take notice of the change in season.
We had been 'hiding' in the house all morning, getting on each others nerves. The boys wanted to play by my feet, whilst Dan and I wanted to read the paper! We needed some space!
So glad we did. I love Leigh Woods, it has a huge place in our little families heart. It is where Dan and I first got together (8 years ago). One moonlight night, at a woodland free party, round the campfire, we had our first kiss. Seems a lifetime ago. But when we are walking through the woods we love to remember that time.
In these woods it is where we sort out our life. We walk, we talk, we share. We breathe, we play, we stop and listen to the silence.
I remember walking through these woods heavily pregnant with Rufus, with only days to go showing Charlie acorns and squirrels.
I loved that top!
Anyway, back to Sunday. The boys had a wonderful time zooming through the puddles on their bikes. Charlie found a pump track that a group of mountain bikers must have made. They spent ages going over and over the set of little bumps and hollows, with much shreaks of laughter when they splashed through the deep muddy puddles.
I on the other hand, became lost in woodland world! The mushrooms I found were enormous, the size of a saucer. I saw many groups of mushroom foragers out collecting, I wish I stopped someone to ask which are actually edible. I haven't a clue.
I have in the past picked some Chanterelle looking mushrooms. Looked them up on the internet, and got scared that they could be 'false chanterelles' (yes, there are such a thing), which are highly poisonous. I threw them in the bin.
So I am thinking maybe to go on a foraging day. Where an expert can point our the goodies from the baddies.
I have no idea what this mushroom is. It was growing on the side of an elder tree, in a starwarsesque kind of city community.
I thought if it's growing on a tree, it cant be edible!
We left the woods two hours later, muddy, a bit wet, pockets full of acorns and big happy smiles.
x
Labels: autumn, bristol, sunday, woods
