There are people on the moor at the moment – strange folks, bent double walking around staring at the ground. They’ve not lost a ring, a fiver or even their virginity. They’re not looking for gold, copper or tin. None would hope to see a Cornish Pisky or an elf. They don’t suffer from osteoporosis or arthritis and they’ve not been working in a confined space for most of their lives.

Somehow I doubt they’re botanists or that they are looking for the clumps of Venus fly traps that are supposed to grow wild in these parts.

They come here in the autumn with one thing on their minds - a little ‘tit’ complete with a ‘nipple’. When they find what they’re looking for, they do a little dance of glee, making sure they don’t trample any of their precious find. They gather up their hoard to see them through the depths of winter with a little bit of a lift.

We blunder about on the moor with the dogs, who charge around like mad things. We trample on all sorts of stuff.

Somehow these little things caught my eye – they sure look like something those strange bent-double people are looking for to me. I wonder if they are? There were quite a lot where these were spotted.

I just thought they’d make a nice shot – apologies to anyone getting to the point of being sick of looking at mushrooms in the meta-gallery! (No offence to anyone posting mushroom pics - it's just there are rather a lot of them!)

By a strange and terrible quirk of fate, the person who told us what these folks were looking for is in hospital today - hit by a coward of a hit and run driver last night. Get better soon Champ!

Last year, we were at the Lane with the DSHM.