Autumn seems to have arrived with a bang recently. It was only a few short weeks ago that summer was still with us and yet my children are now enthusiastically collecting conkers and mushrooms have taken over the garden!

I should probably call them toadstools but being in no way shape or form a mushroom/toadstool expert I’m a bit ignorant as to which is which.

Autumn is always a strange sort of time, I’m definitely not a fan of the increasing rain, or trying to judge if now is the time to pack away the summer dresses and resurrect the winter woolies. But it definitely causes an increase in colour, the streets are already littered with yellow/red leaves as they begin to fall. For us it has also meant the invasion of mushrooms in many shapes and sizes, from the little brown fellow seen above to….

This beast of a mushroom actually grew in my Grandparents garden, but just like it’s smaller cousins it appeared in record time and to the amazement of all.

This rather odd looking one has been mostly eaten, but by what?!

I don’t remember this many mushrooms last year so I can’t help but wonder what has caused this sudden influx. If the trend continues then next year we’ll be overrun!

Thankfully they are rather pretty to look at, even if some are probably deadly. They have even been a source of creative inspiration for us. You may remember me mentioning exciting new items on the horizon. Well we are expanding into craft kits! The first to make it onto the website is our Mushroom Badge.

They are £5.50 and so far have been very popular when taken to fairs. Everything is included (bar a sewing needle) to make your very own Mushroom Badge, it is perhaps preferable to the garden invading kind, and looks much prettier on a coat!