I knew that i could count on you lot out there to solve my fungus conundrum.  David m emailed me within a few minutes yesterday to provide the answer to identifying the 'yellow fingers'.  The culprit is clavaria fusiformis and you can see for yourselves what this looks like by following this link Fusiformis. 

I was talking to a local historian late last week who asked me if I had ever spotted any evidence of the two mills that are reputed to have operated at Horton from about the 12th Century onwards.  Apart from the obvious evidence of the house called Mill Dam alongside Brants Gill I have to confess that I have not seen any sign of structures etc whist walking the river or becks.  Ariel photographs do show some earth works that look suspiciously like an oblong structure alongside a wheel pit down by the river directly opposite Brants Gill and we have photo's that show what looks like a mill structure on Brants Gill itself.  This is now buried under a garage by Mill Dam and has been used in living memory as a water powered electricity generating plant with a wheel that came from Helwith Bridge.  I can recall no reference to any mill in any of the old club records.  So the mystery continues.

It's dull and overcast this morning, but the forecast suggests that it will brighten later.  It's not so cold as it has been probably due to the heavy cloud cover and we have no breeze to stir the mist that's hanging in the valley and cloaking the fells.

Ian