Oh deer....

It's harvest time and we've had a bumper year...  OK, we didn't actually grow anything and most of it was due to our kind neighbours going on holiday for 5 weeks and leaving us in charge of their vegetable garden, but still, it's been a bumper year!

This was beans and raspberries from the neighbours' veg plot, and also mushrooms from the woodland near home. Guy is very good at mushrooms - he knows what's edible and what's not. I've pretty much given up since I proudly (and very carefully) carried home from a run a 'Parasol' mushroom (edible, very nice, shrinks a bit on cooking) only to have him say that it was a 'Panther Cap' (not so edible - not fatal but would give you a nasty stomach ache). And I was soooo proud of my find...

I did at least know enough to leave this one behind:

It's a 'Fly Agaric' - typical of fairy tales everywhere and definitely not edible. Well, it is if you don't mind the hallucinations afterwards... not even the magic mushroom kind, just hallucinations. But it is a beauty! All it needs is a small pixie sitting on it...

We've also had damsons from our hedge and blackberries from the brambles. We could have eaten them with ice cream. Or....

We're not the only ones enjoying the fruits of the countryside.

So are the deer...

Our neighbours (the ones with the veg patch) have everything in their garden eaten by deer. So far it's just the evergreens.

If they reach as far as the roses there'll be trouble....