When you stop looking…

1 December 2015

If November had had a theme it would have been rain and swans. Now November is over and done with I’m hoping one of those will have disappeared with it and you know very well I’m not talking about the swans. The beginning of December also brought the need to think about Christmas presents and I had a bit of a creative idea that involved a trip to the Hobby Shop next to the Swan Garden Centre. Originally I’d planned to drive there to save time but there was blue sky and sunshine outside so I took it as an omen that I should walk. None of the things I needed to buy were big or heavy after all and I had all the time in the world.

When I said where I was going CJ decided to come along, lured by the hot chocolate at the garden centre and the possibility of interesting things in the hobby shop. It was never meant to be the kind of walk where I stopped to take lots of photos, although I did have my phone with me. As we started down the slope into Hum Hole though, I couldn’t resist a quick shot of the blue sky and the sun lighting the tops of the bare trees. Then, climbing up to the trail, I had to capture the little glade gleaming in the morning light.  Sometimes I can’t help myself.

As we strolled though the fallen leaves up the hill CJ was on the look out for fungi. He’s become quite the fungus hunter recently and, luckily, he found some today. Even better, I was pretty sure I knew what they were, at least I thought I was.
“They look like young turkey tails to me,” I said, looking at the rows of stripy brown shells on the rotting log beside the path. “They come in lots of colours and I think they’re some of the prettiest fungi there are.”
So we stopped for photos and, once he’d found one crop of fungi he was determined to find more, even though we were almost at the road.

To be honest I was impatient to get to the hobby shop but CJ crawled along at a snail’s pace, poking at every log we passed. In the end his persistence paid off and he did find something interesting although I had no idea what it was. A twig near the top of the path was covered in globs of semi opaque gelatinous stuff that, frankly, didn’t look all that pleasant. Even so, I took a photo to try to find out later what it was. Extensive Googling has revealed that it was mostly likely something called crystal brain fungus, more properly Myxarium nucleatum. Unsurprisingly, it’s actually a jelly fungus and it grows on dead branches of broadleaf trees. It won’t win any prizes for the most attractive thing but kudos to CJ for finding it.

The rest of the walk to the hobby shop was uneventful and no photos were taken, although I did try (and fail) to find the spot where I’d seen the boundary stone when we were walking past the Gregg School on Cutbush Lane. As we walked CJ reminisced about all the times Grandma took him to the hobby shop and the garden centre and how she always bought him a hot chocolate when they went there. He waxed lyrical about that hot chocolate in quite some detail just in case I’d forgotten I’d promised him one.

The hobby shop is huge and it took quite sme time to find the things I needed for my Christmas present project and quite some willpower not to buy lots of things I didn’t need. Somehow CJ decided he badly needed a set of acrylic paints and, as they were on special offer I bought them for him to reward him for the crystal brain fungus tenacity. Then we packed everything into my rucksack and went next door to the garden centre. The idea had been to get hot chocolate and sit at one of the tables, preferably one looking over the gardens, to drink it. As soon as we walked in it was obvious that was never going to happen as the queues were massive and the tables all full. In the end we did queue for our drinks but opted to have them to go.

My original plan had been to walk home via West End Cpose where CJ may well have spent the rest of the day looking for fungi and I may have had to go home without him. The thing is, I really wanted to sit somewhere to enjoy my hot chocolate and there aren’t any benches in West End Copse unless you count the giant table and chair. There was a quick change of plan and I suggested walking down Gaters Hill to the White Swan and the benches beside the river.

When we got there CJ got a touch obsessed with taking phoots of ducks so I went and sat on the bench alone. Suddenly I had a good idea why Commando gets so fed up with my constant photo taking. Eventually he joined me and we drank our hot chocolates looking over the river. Sadly, the blue sky was gone and things had clouded over.
“You know there are always lots more ducks down by the mill,” I told him. “They’re usually right on the bank or even on the path so you’d get far better pictures.”
Of course this meant another stop further on but eventually we crossed the road and headed homeward.

On a log near the reedbeds CJ was very excited to spot a massive crop of turkey tails, especially as he now knew what they were. Somehow I must have missed them when I last walked this way. Maybe I need to take CJ on all my woodland walks because he’s turning out to be quite a fungus spotter. As we rounded the bend I wondered if he might even bring me some black swan luck but when the jetty came into view I could see at once there were no black swans among the white.

About half way between the jetty and the slope there was a terrific kerfuffle on the water and we both turned to look.
“Isn’t that a black swan?” CJ said.
He was right too. Over the other side of the river, near the houseboats, a black swan and a white swan were having a bit of a dispute. Both had reared up out of the water and were flapping their wings at each other creating a tremendous splashing. Unfortunately, they were too far away for decent photos, especially with the darkening sky. Before long the white swan slunk away and the black swan paddled off its feathers held aloft in victory. If there was one black swan perhaps there were others.

We stood and watched as the black swan swam off and sure enough, there was another on the other side of the river, right by the far bank. Then I caught movement in the shadows. The cygnets were there two, four of them. Sadly, the low light and distance made it impossible to get any kind of decent photos, although, if you really squint you can see three grey shapes next to the river wall below someone’s garden. Still, we saw them quite clearly. Maybe CJ is my lucky charm.

When I set out this morning I wasn’t even intending to walk along the river. In fact I didn’t intend to take any photos and I certainly didn’t expect to see the black swan cygnets. It seems to me the best way to find something is not to look for it.