We’ve gone from summer to autumn in no time at all. It seems like only yesterday that the temperatures were reaching 20⁰C and the sun was shining. Now, well it’s definitely autumn – see yesterday’s posting if you are in any doubt whatsoever.

David has been cutting lawns today in preparation for winter and when I came home he told me to take a peek behind the greenhouse. There, in all its glory was a complete forest of fungi. It’s a source of great sadness to me that my biology degree didn’t dwell more on fungi because I am fascinated by them. For example, did you know that they:
1. Are not plants – they don’t photosynthesise
2. What you see is not the whole of the organism but a small part of a much bigger thing that lives underground – mushrooms and toadstools are only the fruiting bodies
3. Often have cells with many nuclei
4. It’s thought that the biggest living organism is a fungus!
You see – they are much more interesting than most people think. There are also very few scientists that specialise in researching them.

It’s a branch of science that I’d have been really interested in pursuing but it was not available at UoP. Ah well, there goes another career…