Caption: Common Puffball. I often go walking with the dogs in the various woods around Laois, throughout the year and I took this photo in Sheffield woods, just off the Timahoe road in January of this year. I enjoy nature and love to see the changing of the seasons in the woods I walk so often. Usually I am taking in the changes with the trees, and the different colours of the leaves, but this time I chose to look down, and noticed some of the wonders that nature has to offer at ground level. I had never really noticed how many wonderful examples of fungi & mushrooms that grow in Ireland, and only on taking a closer look did I get to see how much detail there was with these varieties. So now, when I'm out walking, I keep any eye out for these, and the different types of fungi that grow on dead trees as well, as these are a spectacular sight to behold, some of the colours are amazing. However, it is now actually a race to see who gets there first, because as soon as I'm down on my hands and knees trying to get the photos, the dogs are straight over, curious to see what I'm up to, and one paw in the wrong place, and that's the photo gone!! But I thought it would be nice to show people how beautiful these fungi are, if you just take a closer look. So I hope you like and enjoy the photo I uploaded of the Common Puffball, which I believe the proper name is Lycoperdon_Perlatum. Many thanks, Michelle O'Shea