Wed 2010-12-08 
From back in the summer: Terellia tussilaginis (Diptera: Tephritidae) mating on a burdock seed-head (Arctium sp).
Photo taken in Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2010-07-20.
Tue 2010-12-07 
A week or two ago, I came across this lump of green jelly-like substance in the Wilderness. It was on a dead leaf on the ground just below this slime-covered log:
I suspect that this slime is blue-green algae (Cyanobacteria), possibly a Nostoc sp. In particular, it looks like the amorphous terrestrial form shown at the foot of this page at Down Garden Services.
Photos taken in the Wilderness, Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2010-11-23.
Mon 2010-12-06 
An unopened shaggy inkcap mushroom (Coprinus comatus). The following specimen has opened showing the black inky self-digesting gills:
Photos taken in the Wilderness, Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2010-10-07.
Sun 2010-12-05 ... NASA's shameful analysis of the alleged bacteria in the Mars meteorite made me very suspicious of their microbiology, an attitude that's only strengthened by my reading of this paper. Basically, it don't present ANY convincing evidence that arsenic has been incorporated into DNA (or any other biological molecule). ...
... If this data was presented by a PhD student at their committee meeting, I'd send them back to the bench to do more cleanup and controls. ...
From this blog post by Dr Rosie Redfield (who runs a microbiology research lab at the University of British Columbia).
Tristram Brelstaff
Chemist Alex Bradley raises more problems with the NASA claim here.
Sun 2010-12-05 
Another one from our summer holiday up north: a Conopid fly, probably Conops flavipes (Diptera: Conopidae).
Photo taken in Bousdale, near Guisborough, North Yorkshire, UK, on 2010-08-08.
