John C. writes: Whilst everyone else was heading off at high speed in the hope of tea and cake at Chastleton House on last Sunday’s walk from Adelstrop, I was lagging behind, turning over wet logs in the hope of finding (what else?) slime moulds. It turned out that I wasn’t the only one interested in them.
If you don’t share my enthusiasm for the microscopic weird and wonderful, there’s no need to read on!
John C. writes: Tidying up in the garden a couple of days ago I noticed some white deposits on stalks in my leaf-mould bin. It would have been easy to dismiss them as ‘just mould’ but I decided to look more closely – if you don’t look, you don’t find! – and what I found, though small, was extraordinary and really rather beautiful.
Field Club walks are usually not very challenging, but this one was different: it was variously described as an obstacle course or even an adventure. Despite the challenges, we found what we had gone to look for and people enjoyed the adventure, or at least seemed to.
John C. writes: Last Thursday, as usual every fortnight, I spent the morning with the LWVP volunteers, this time tidying up the Windrush path at Standlake (which made a change from removing tree guards at Rushy Common!). It was a lovely sunny morning and Willow Warblers were singing everywhere, although there seemed to be fewer Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs than when Sue and I were there on Easter Monday.
John C. writes: Don’t be put off by the name! Slime moulds, or Myxomycetes to give them their posh scientific name, are perhaps some of the natural world’s most weird and wonderful organisms. They are everywhere but usually overlooked. They are not animals, nor plants, nor fungi. They move and display some sort of intelligence; their small fruiting bodies can strangely beautiful. Over the past year I have become fascinated (some would say obsessed) by them. It’s a real pity that they are cursed with such a terrible name because they really are worth a close look – it’s a new world.
WEST OXFORDSHIRE FIELD CLUB