Thursday 20th November
A fresh flurry of snow through the night has made working in the woods with my forestry hatchet very satisfying today. Birch-thinning and invasive species clearance is all the more fun on a day like this with a decent frosting all around.
It also makes anything sightly outside of the norm much more apparent. On some old gorse I came across a good dose of a jelly fungus of many names - yellow brain, witches butter, golden jelly or yellow trembler. It is parasitic, feeding on other fungi species and will usually grow on gorse or oaks within broadleaf woodland.
In European folklore, if it sprouted up on a wooden gate, it was said that a witch had cast a spell on the family living there.
Always an enchanting find and the winter months are a great time to see it.
