You may look, touch, but don’t eat

At this time of year I find fungi like these all over the garden, all over the grass verges and in just about every woodland I visit.

Someone said that they thought this year had been a good one for them. I wouldn’t disagree with that because I am finding evidence of fungi just about everywhere I go.

It rather upsets me to find people out with baskets picking and collecting them. I know mushrooms and toadstools don’t last very long but in my book they are part of the countryside and ought to be left there. One gent I quizzed insisted he was a Mycophile – yeh I had to look it up as well –

Even so I reckon picking and eating strikes me as a dodgy business. I would much sooner pick my mushrooms in Sainsbury’s – lying down and dying in the woods doesn’t really appeal to me.

“Avoid the colourful ones” he advised and you can always tell if they are poisonous because the animals won’t eat them. I thanked him for his wisdom and hoped he would go and pursue his hobby somewhere else.

I didn’t feel I wanted to sit around for hours watching to see if a squirrel came to munch away at the specimen I was watching. In fact no squirrel (nor anything else) appeared in the bit of the wood where I was photographing, but I still didn’t fancy them.  

To be safe I will continue to apply my old dad’s advice – you may look and touch, but don’t eat them – and don’t forget to wash you hands afterwards.

Isn’t it wonderful to be unadventurous. However it’s one way of ensuring I shall be here next week.