A little rain eventually came on 27th August, ending a drought of at least 5 weeks. But
the rain was not much, and the ground remained baked and hard.
The Plantlife magazine told me that there is now a recommended list of English names
for about 1,000 species of fungi. Some 40 years ago a basic list of 200 were agreed,
and these have been used in most books. Now the Fungus Conservation Forum, which
is a consortium of groups such as English Nature and the British Mycological Society,
have produced a list of standard names. So henceforth I shall use them! The list can be
downloaded from the Plantlife website or I can send a copy to anyone who sends me a
stamped addressed envelope big enough for 4 sheets of A4. The list is alphabetical by
the Latin names, and thus also serves as a simple checklist for the current Latin names
of these species.
The autumn equinox brought a great change in the weather. On the 22nd September I
was still wearing shorts and suntop in a temperature of about 24°C, but at teatime it
cooled with a stronger NW wind and we had just over 1cm of rain in under an hour; we
cheered! Tuesday, the 12 hour day, was cool but mainly bright. On the 24th we woke up
to frost on the hay (the lawn is still pale yellow) and the thermometer showed -1 °C. We
are back to clear skies with sunshine, but a maximum temperature today of 16°C. It felt
as though winter has suddenly arrived. But it had not! More warm dry sunny weather
followed.
A cricket appeared in our bath one evening. How it got there I have no idea. My
husband chased it with a cup to take it outdoors, but instead it jumped down the plug-
hole ! We could not see it, or get it out, but it was chirruping all through the evening.
We felt very sorry for it, but could do nothing to help. Strange, isn't it, that a wasp or a
spider in the bath we happily kill, but we are sad about a cricket; it was the constant
chirruping that got to us, like a crying child. The following evening, having been quiet
all day, he started again, and when we next looked he had crawled out and was in the
bath again. This time we put the plug in the plug-hole first and caught him in a glass jar
so we could get a good look. He was clearly a House Cricket, but I am sure he had not
been in the house very long; we would surely have heard him. So I put him outside, in
the gentle rain. He had probably got used to living outdoors in our warm summer. I
understand that House Crickets used to be abundant on tips and similar rotting heaps
that generate heat, but nowadays, as all tips are required to be covered with soil each
day, the House Crickets have all gone, so it is now a somewhat scarcer animal.
In early October we visited the woodland above Davy Down to see what was there,
mostly by way of fungi. There were very few fungi, as we feared, but we did find a
plant of Deadly Nightshade. I had not seen one for nearly 50 years, but recognised it
quickly. It grows on chalky soils, including Grays Chalk Quarry reserve, and this area
by Davy Down is the northern fringe of the chalk outcrop in southern Essex. It is rather
uncommon in Essex as a whole, and not common anywhere in Britain. Although named
12 Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 43, January 2004