daguerrotypes

rather pleasing effect from PaintShop pro, making this fearsome pony look much more benign. He chased us out of his patch!

sauron looks on

perched on the top of this ruined mine stack is a very large vulture, watching the little furry hobbits (that's Frodo Lilly and Harriet) and thinking about having a late lunch

more ring legends

...see what I mean. It was probably very appropriate that Frodo should be with us when we found the source of the ring. 

the source of the ring

.... a very fine day for a walk, with Aunty Sally and her two ruffians (I can't believe we are so closely related). I had never quite understood where the ring on the stem of mushrooms came from, well now I can see that as the mushroom grows up through the soil or whatever, the cap is connected to the stem, and when it emerges it spreads out breaking away from the stem, leaving behind the ring, and here it is in the process.

damp hands

clouds lie on the land like a damp hand, staunching the blood flow from the hills. 

slippery

... now it is easy to see why this mushroom is called slippery. The woods are stuffed full of fungi, but what can we eat?