For the last 8 weeks we have spent most of our week-end walks with our heads firmly stuck on the ground, hoping that we may just this time find he holy grail of all mushrooms:  cèpes also known as porcini.  We found  1.  Not quite enough as a side dish but plenty to remind us that they are there.

I once picked kilos of bolets and cèpes and remember drying them all around the house on radiators, in the airing cupboard. Once you have experienced the joy of finding them, preparing and eating them you ARE hooked and casual walks in the woods are never the same again.

While we haven’t really picked anything that substantial or exciting  this season, this autumnal obsession has given us the opportunity to discover our surrounding woods, Hertfordshire is full of them and we are really lucky to have access to them so easily.  So no mushroom joy but plenty of photo opportunities.