Prince or Horse Mushroom?

I'll be the first to admit that I don't spend enough time studying my fungi and it's at times like this that I regret that as it leaves me torn between possible identifications.



I found this one tonite, on a woodland verge underneath a huge cedar tree, it was last it's best and a little maggoty, it didn't smell bad at all just very mushroomy, if I had have smelt anise I would have said horse mushroom but I didn't pick that smell up. Due to the scales on the cap and the fact it was under a conifer then I'm swaying towards a prince.. but I'm happy to be corrected if anyone can do so..by the way



It was very tasty!!

Shelter placement and wind direction.

It's almost one of those instinctive things, build your shelter with its back to the prevailing winds, it offers you protection right? Yes but it can also cause problems



Looks good on an elevated rise to avoid a cold sink, back to the wind and room in front but..
The wind races over the slanted roof causing an acceleration of air draft resulting in a drawing effect towards the shelter..



And once you light your fire the draw will suck any smoke directly into your shelter.
I made this a very smokey fire intentionally to show just how the draw works in a strong wind and you can clearly see how the smoke bends into the shelter just like an eddy in a creek or stream.
When building a shelter with strong prevailing winds build it so that the wind is parallel to your shelter and draws the fire to the side, it could save you a lot of heartache if you've spent a long time building.

Great summer Fungi Find

When out leading a foraging walk recently I came across some lovely edible summer tree fungi



Chicken of the woods, growing on an oak. A little past it's best but we did take a little and cooked it up and it was outstanding





And dryads saddle also called pheasants wing or pheasants back, this fungi was in profusion but we only took a little to try, again all thought it was quite delicious.

Lost its Mum

While out on another short expedition we were sitting round the fire late one evening when we heard a chirping sound, it sounded like a bird but there were some who recognised it straight away, a fallow deer fawn had wandered into camp and was looking for its mum



It was quickly and quietly moved to the outside of camp where it's mum could find it safely. All ended well as we saw the two of them together as dawn broke the following morning.

.50 cal shell Ferro rod.

Managed to get my hands on a few .50 cal shell casings so I thought I'd put a get to rod in one and see how it turned out.



This was the 125mm x 12.5mm ferro rod which was a perfect fit with some epoxy resin. Stuffed inside the casing so the rod didn't slip the whole way in and I also added a lanyard.
It's a big beast as you can see next to the Mora kansbol.

Top ten UK bushcraft blog awards.

Feedspot had whittled down all the bushcraft blogs in the UK to the top ten, and guess what, we made it in there..

A very many thanks to Feedspot and the founders for this award.

https://blog.feedspot.com/uk_bushcraft_blogs/

Telling the difference between a cockle and a clam

I went for a coastal bimble last week after a storm to see what Poseidon have coughed up onto the shore, always an interesting adventure.



A huge mid part of a nipper from a brown crab, this fella must have weighed 2 pounds easily..



A leg from a spider crab. These were not originally that common around our shores but seem to be more readily found these days.



Lots and lots of razor clam shells



And lastly quite a few clam and cockle shells, and the easy way to tell them apart... the radial lines on a cockle are vertical and those on a clam are horizontal..its as easy as that.

Both taste really good in a clam chowder !!