fungi?

Just a quick post today.......
Tidying the garden after winter, picking up leaves and cutting back the old seed heads and stems, I found what looked at first like old, rotted rose buds, but I don't think so.

There is a similarity to the shape, hmm?

(Sorry, just realised my point-and-press has focused on the fence!)

So I checked my trusty Collins gem guide to mushrooms and there was one like it, the Collared Earthstar.
Of course, that picture was taken in the autumn, when the fungi was fresh, not dried and shrivelled like mine.
Also it gives the habitat as on chalk (my garden is almost pure sand) and under beech trees (this was under the magnolia).
So is it, or isn't it?
Any ideas.......?

green and eco-friendly...

This week was all about pancakes, but in our house pancakes, like ashes, are gone before you notice. So the camera came out for muffins instead.
We all love muffins, any excuse to eat cake for breakfast, yes? As an exercise in using up bits and bobs in the fridge, Frugal Muffins also give a warm, inter glow that has little to do with the addition of ground ginger to the mix.
A nearly-empty packet of spirulina powder has been lurking on a shelf for some months and I pondered if this wonder stuff would work in a muffin. Trying to make this breakfast staple as healthy as possible, I always add jumbo oats, fruit, minimal sugar and use sunflower oil and skimmed milk (although hazelnut milk is rather tasty). Then top with either sunflower or pumpkin seeds. And the obligatory ground ginger, of course.
Have you come across spirulina powder before? It is green. Very green. Also, the powder is very fine and can spread further than icing sugar if handled unwarily. My hand looked like the Hulk. The muffins could have been his favourite snack.
Green. Very green.
I ate the first one with my eyes shut.
Tasted fine.

Second try with the green stuff, there was half an apple in the fridge so grated that and added cocoa powder, reasoning the brown would dominate in the mix.
Looked a bit like a pond in winter, slimy with a hint of, yes, green.

When cooked, they looked a bit better. A kind of duckety-mud.

Not sure if the white chocolate drops were a good idea, but they tasted good. (I managed to keep my eyes open this time.)

Now for a change, a non-green variety. There is a spoon of spicy marmalade in a ramakin and a little leftover filling from some Eccles cakes I made the other day, also some orange syrup from a jar of preserved Seville orange peel and a few home-preserved sweet chestnuts that need finishing off. It just needs some dried cranberries, maybe, or.........

Is it me, or do they look just a tiny bit boring.......?.....