An absolute chanterelle emergency in the woods by Loch Ness. I picked a bagful but we were supposed to be hiking.. I've never seen anything like it, there were so many. Also found hedgehog fungus, a few boletes (but most were one to two weeks too old), shaggy inkcaps, my first woolly milkcaps, a handful of puffballs, and a few to be IDed.
Dave and I went on a mini adventure to the Highlands. We stopped over in Inverness, then bussed to a quiet hostel on the side of Loch Ness.
We promptly proceeded to climb Meall Fuar-mhonaidh, going extremely the long way around. A few wrong-side-of-the-fence mishaps, and forcing our way through ferns taller than me. We were also delayed by vast quantities of chanterelles.
After descending, we reached a small and lovely tea room / pottery barn, just in time for rain. So we stayed a while for cake.
The route back took us along the Great Glen Way.
That evening I made wild mushroom stir fry to share with the couple of other people in the hostel. Dave had a pizza.
Sunrise at the lochside. A castle visit. A wander around Inverness city and river islands. Put Dave on a bus back home, but I stayed.
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A pleasant sunny solo day in Inverness. I went to the Botannical Gardens (and bought plants, oops). Climbed a big hill with a cemetery on it. Enjoyed the local vegan food scene.
Dave's room The guest room becomes white and purple. This was my first ever time painting a colour and it was fun.
An amazing full rainbow in view from Dysart. And some sunrises and Max time.
Of all of the things that could divide the current TAG, ReSpec vs Bikeshed is going to be our downfall.
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Replacing the smelly carpet with laminate in Dave's room the guest room has escalated into installing insulation under the floor in half the flat. Which is definitely good in the long run by BY GOLLY do I want this disruption to be over.
Replacing the smelly carpet with laminate in my room will, I anticipate, escalate into creating a secret compartment under the floor with a trap door because I think I have 4-5 feet of space down there.. (plus installing under floor insulation in the other half of the flat).
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Another amazing sunrise, with Max and K. In the evening, I went with K and R to see Merlin Sheldrake talk in St Andrews. We got chips on the way back from East Wemyss - just in time.
R and Max and I insulated under the floor in Dave's room the guest room. Under one half of the room there was a positively comfortable 2 feet of space to maneuver in, but under the other half it got down to a foot or less. Not horrifying at all. This involved duct taping and cable tying insulation tubes around as many pipes as we could get to, and stapling and taping thick foily stuff over it all. It took the better part of a weekend and felt like a mega achievement. Max did most of the work, obviously.
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Agaricus haul, and some beautiful amanita muscaria.
Chocolate coconut cake at home; sachertorte at the Community Kitchen.
In reply to: https://mobile.twitter.com/greenerkdy/status/1447961275619811333
The chocolate cake is my interpretation of Sachertorte because I knew we had some apricot jam lying around in the community kitchen from last week.
And then I get to tell everyone about the time I single-handedly made sachertorte for about 170 people in the mountains outside Vienna a few years ago.
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This morning my brother found me buzzing around at 7am in the kitchen, nodded knowingly, and said "ah it's your superfan day. That's why you're up early getting all your jars out."
And indeed! The grand opening of the Kirkcaldy branch of Grain and Sustain has arrived!
I got there just after 9 to find it delightfully buzzing, jammed my backpack full of jars of supplies, and had lovely chats with a few local business owners who I bumped into who I also see regularly. Plus the sun was out. I am feeling the love for Fife!
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Laid laminate floor in Dave's room the guest room. Once again, Max's help was invaluable.
Cemetery foraging; lots of brightly coloured waxcaps, and some agaricus. Nothing else in the box, mind your own business.
Giant horse mushrooms picked by R up near Cupar.
Sunrises and Max time..
Earthstar fungi in Ravenscraig Park. Various inkcaps, including a good harvest of shaggy. Funnels, porcelain fungus, and a few wee things I don't know.
Making as many things as possible with foraged apples and mushrooms.
Rock hunting in Orrock Quarry. The clouds hung low and heavy, muting and distorting all sound. The mounds of stone formed an alien landscape. The air was damp and cold. The light disappeared quickly, and we had left late to walk from Dysart. The country roads weren't lit, and there was no way we would make it over the hill to Burntisland in total darkness. We pressed on to Kinghorn instead, and ate extortionately priced chips while we waited for the last bus home.
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Giant field mushrooms as pizza base... as pie topper...
The great thing about procrastibaking is that at the end of the day when you realise you haven't got any work done, you can console yourself with cake.
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Many delicious chocolatey things. And more meals with field mushrooms.
Pressing apples and making compote.
Sunrises in Dysart. A little visit to Lowenna.
Reminiscing about Malaysia, I made nasi lemak. It was so good! The vegan boiled eggs - made from potato, soy milk and agar, primarily, with kala namak - were weird but, you know, filled a need.
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Set out on the motorbike for a brief jaunt to St Monan's, then back to Buckhaven to load up on apples. But the search for a nonexistent secondhand shop in St Monan's dragged on, time advanced faster than expected, and we found ourselves having to choose between chips in East Wemyss and an extremely rapid apple pick. We went for the former and regretted nothing.
Mum came to visit. We adventured around Kirkcaldy, to Burntisland, and visited Dave at work in Aberdour. Got rained on a lot, but walked a lot anyway.
Good haul of shaggy inkcaps.
Fungal questing with Lowenna in Livingston.
Peanut butter cups and muffins in the Community Kitchen. Haggis, neeps and tatties (and chard) at home. Wagamama's at Kit's.
A weekend of looking after the void demon. She sat over me concernedly when I had a migraine, and we went for a big long walk to Livingston Village and back. She is very good at finding socks.
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