Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust’s Ellen Winter reflects on a month of activity in and around the Stroud Valleys.

ENJOY being outside? Want to learn new skills, have fun and meet like-minded people?

Then come along to our practical conservation taster session for all the family this Sunday and have fun while making a real difference in your local area.

You’ll join the reserve manager to get a taster of the kind of work need to look after reserves, and of course no taster day would be complete without some tasty cake.

Children are most welcome but do need to be closely supervised.

Directions: From Nailsworth, travel south along the A46 for two miles and turn right for Dursley at the traffic lights. Follow the road for three miles until the road bears right for Dursley and carry on ahead to Wotton-under-Edge on B4058 for one mile.

After the golf course on your left, where the main road bears left downhill, fork right down the narrow lane signposted Waterley Bottom (ignore the road closed sign), and continue for one mile until you reach the scout hut on your left. The nature reserve is next door.

Parking: There is parking for a couple of cars at the nature reserve, and more in the lay-by. Old London Road nature reserve, Wotton-under-Edge, GL12 7PS.

This time of year is great for fungus forays, and on Wednesday October 8 I’m running a Fungus for Beginners course.

This course is a short introduction into the fascinating world of field mycology for those new to the subject.

Frith Wood SSSI is home to a diverse range of beautiful fungi, and this fun and friendly course is designed to help you start to understand features to look for when trying to identify a mushroom.

Full of fascinating insights into one of the most misunderstood kingdoms in nature (which common fungus has 28,000 sexes and can flinch when touched?) you will soon be hooked.

The course costs £20 and runs from 9.30am until 12.30pm.

Places can be booked by visiting the Trusts website gloucestershirewild lifetrust.co.uk