Hello all

I have happened upon all this and (in the light of a longish and very involved thread about a tiny fungus recently) would just like to say something . . . I know little about the background to this discussion so will attempt to tread lightly (for me!)

in 1798 (I think) Wordsworth memorably said "Nature never did betray the heart that loved her" - OK we'll let him off the fact that he was at Tintern Abbey and not in Yorkshire - there is so much else to we 'elitist' folk with our 'clever' posts . . . .

this is a fantastic site - it has enabled me to talk to other enthusiasts across Europe (I know it's Wild About Britain but others clearly value it) on occasion I have got things badly wrong and (unwittingly) upset people because posts on a website are not like jokey comments thrown out across a group in a pub where you can immediately see the effect you have had on people and sort it there and then

Mycology has proved a very valuable safety valve for me in the last few years (the great mycologist Persoon is a personal hero . . . his name echoes throughout the study of fungi - but read this Christiaan Hendrik Persoon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia and imagine what it was like for the guy, when a letter might take weeks to get to its recipient)

so I hope that this site is big enough to encompass the nature-lover and the specialist (no value judgements trust me) we are all 'amateurs' and that word of course springs from the Latin verb 'to love' - and to get even more poetic read:
An Arundel Tomb by Philip Larkin - Times Online

take care all

Chris