A Walk Through La Foret de Tours-Preuilly Part Two

Yesterday's walk holds some really good memories for us, not just for the things we mentioned in yesterday's post, but also for the quality of the light and the sheer peace of the forest... There was hardly a breath of wind to break the surface of the water...

Several times one of another of us commented on the lack of noise. You could literally had heard a pin drop! In fact what we heard dropping were not pins but acorns.... Acorns by the ton! I don't think I've ever seen so many or such large ones. There is certainly food in abundance for some woodland creatures.

The dappled light played on the forest floor, and made for some beautiful photo opportunities...

One creature really stood out in the sunlight. You could hardly miss this Comma, against the silvery grey bark...

Likewise with the Spindleberry. It's waxy fruits looked almost artificial.

We spoke yesterday of a lumber stack; well this is it! Colin, standing next to it, is six foot tall, so it's quite a pile, isn't it?

Then the last lap with the sun fast disappearing..

Isn't that Simon with his groupies, they make a motley crew!

Once again; What a lovely day!! More of the same, please!

A Walk through La forêt de Tours-Preuilly

This is a walk we've done at least once every year since we've lived here and we never tire of it.

Today we went with Gaynor and Tim met up with Susan and Simon. A walk which usually takes us a couple of hours lasted well over three hours as we ambled along, sharing finds and backtracking to look at something we'd missed. But that made it all the more enjoyable.

The range of fungi on show was wide and varied in colour, size and edibility. Here are just a few of those we saw.

 

Perhaps Susan would be kind enough to comment on the photos below...

More on the walk to follow....

Follow up on Fungi Foray in the Foret de Preuilly

Having read Susan's post on Thursday, November 1st, we decided to take a trip over to the Foret de Preuilly yesterday to join a party from the Association de Botanique et de Mycologie in Sainte Maure de Touraine.

We were made to feel welcome from the start and, armed with our basket, we set out into the forest. The party of about 25 split into groups and we made sure we were with an expert, and my word... what an expert.. It was a delight to see Jean Bouton at work identifying the specimens we found..

The group collected and discussed, gathering together to listen and learn.

 This expression from the master of fungi says it all....

What we didn't know, we made up for in enthusiasm and soon had a basket full of colourful fungi..

I don't think we'd ever seen such a variety. They ranged from the tiniest to the huge. Here Colin is holding a langue de boeuf....

Whilst I was happier with the smaller specimens....

It was a wonderful way to spend the afternoon and I'm sure we learnt from it... if only the fact that if you found anything special, it was stashed away in Jean's red box and never seen again!!