Alex Scott Fairley
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alexscottfairley.bsky.social
Alex Scott Fairley
@alexscottfairley.bsky.social
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New-Scottish Tasmanian. Professional actor and proof-reader. Loves nature, words, mountains, whippets, and paleontology. Currently in the process of writing the 'Dinosaur Dell' stories.
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alexscottfairley.bsky.social
And a bonus olive oysterling (Sarcomyxa serotina), still going strong, in frozen Perthshire! #FungiFriday #FungiFriends #fungi #mushroom #nature #Scotland
Olive oysterling (Sarcomyxa serotina).
November 28, 2025 at 9:04 PM
alexscottfairley.bsky.social
It's probably my last #FungiFriday of the year, given the weather! These finds were after several frosts, in Surrey and Perthshire, so I was delighted to see them, even though numbers and diversity overall seems down on previous years. #fungi #mushroom #nature #FungiFriends
The last of the spindles and clubs from a Surrey churchyard. The last fungi of the year from a Surrey churchyard, including a little cluster of earthtongues, and a trio of scarlet caterpillar clubs (Cordyceps militaris). More of the last fungi of the year from a Surrey churchyard, including a lone (and rather leached) ballerina waxcap (Porpolomopsis calyptriformis). The few fungi that had survived the heavy frosts in the cemetery at Blairgowrie, including what might possibly be beige coral (Clavulinopsis umbrinella).
November 28, 2025 at 8:51 PM
alexscottfairley.bsky.social
Thank you to Ruth for a lovely day at one of my old haunts, the Hermitage, in Dunkeld. Spellbinding even in the mist! And wonderful to see so much hair-ice around; one of my favorite #fungi phenomena. #FungiFriends #woodland #forest #waterfall #Scotland @n-t-s.bsky.social @florainoxford.bsky.social
Ruth and I at a very misty Pinecone Point! Ossian's Falls on the River Braan at the Hermitage in spate. The misty tree canopy on the walk to Pinecone Point. Hair-ice, a phenomenon caused by the presence of the fungus Exidiopsis effusa. It took until 2015 for it to be realised that the fungus caused the unusual formations, but to this date no-one is entirely sure how it does this!
November 26, 2025 at 5:01 PM
alexscottfairley.bsky.social
The past week has been a whirlwind of touring and teaching, but managed this collection for #wildflowerhour from the south coast to the Midlands. As you can see, there was no hope of finding anything on my excursion to Meall Dearg in Scotland! #flower #nature @wildflowerhour.bsky.social
This week's finds for WildFlowerHour... I promise I usually do IDs in the ALT text, but aside from climbing a mountain, and a twelve-hour mostly standing train journey, I haven't had one second away from touring, teaching, and performing! Meall Dearg in Glen Coe on Friday. There were no flowers to be seen here at all (unsurprisingly)...
November 23, 2025 at 8:07 PM
alexscottfairley.bsky.social
A glorious #Munro No. 109: Meall Dearg, at 953m. More #snow than we’d expected, so grateful for the ice ax and cleats, but some beautiful half-frozen waterfalls and views from the summit of the Aonach Eagach ridge. #mountain #Scotland #ice #Glencoe #Scottish #hill #climbing #walking
Looking down on the walk back from the summit of Meall Dearg. A view from the precipitous summit of Meall Dearg. A partially frozen waterfall on the north approach to Meall Dearg. At the summit of a snowy Meall Dearg (with my friend Marianne's canine companion!)
November 21, 2025 at 8:42 PM
alexscottfairley.bsky.social
And most of all, how wonderful to be able to play such an underratedly talented, lovely man as Hugh Paddick! I will miss all of these characters! #theatre #play #RoundtheHorne
Eve Winters as Betty Marsden as Dame Celia Molestrangler as Fiona, and Alex Scott Fairley as Hugh Paddick as ageing juvenile Binkie Huckaback as Charles. Though I know you know I know that. The roles played by Hugh Paddick in this edition of "Round the Horne"!
November 20, 2025 at 10:03 AM
alexscottfairley.bsky.social
Thank you too to all the people that kept me company on the way, and how amazing to be surrounded by #theatre history from Shaw, #Olivier, Barrie and #Christie, to Jean Alexander, Su Pollard, Felice Arena, and Herr Flick of the Gestapo. #Corrie #CoronationStreet #play #tour #RoundtheHorne
Some of the theater memorabilia from theatres and their surroundings we've visited. Some of the theater memorabilia from theatres and their surroundings we've visited. A few of the lovely people who I met up with during the tour!
November 20, 2025 at 10:03 AM
alexscottfairley.bsky.social
Last night was the last date on our epic #RoundtheHorne sixtieth anniversary #tour. We've visited a lot of very beautiful #theatres up and down the UK, from London to Birmingham, to Dumfries, Norfolk, and Stoke-on-Trent. Thank you to the wonderful team on- and off-stage who have made it such a joy!
Some of the beautiful theaters we have visited on the "Round the Horne" sixtieth anniversary tour. Some of the beautiful theaters we have visited on the "Round the Horne" sixtieth anniversary tour. Some of the beautiful theaters we have visited on the "Round the Horne" sixtieth anniversary tour.
November 20, 2025 at 10:03 AM
alexscottfairley.bsky.social
It's another #FungiFriday, and there has been so much travel on my tour, I haven't had much of a chance to get out and about, save two cemeteries! One in Hampshire, one in Dumfries! I haven't even begun IDs beyond the obvious, so apologies! #FungiFriends #mycology #mushroom #nature #fungi
A selection of waxcaps from both Hampshire and Dumfries inlcuding - appropriately - a red, red rose (colored waxcap) from near Rabbie Burns's mausoleum. Always a joy to see parrot waxcaps in the grass too! Puffballs, spindles, and earthtongues; the latter in abundance both in Hampshire and Dumfries! A selection of grassland fungi, from both Dumfries and Hampshire. I'm particularly keen to properly ID the top right-hand corner; I think it may be a pinkgill of some description as the gills in real life were quite surprisingly violaceous. A rather ancient waxcap of some description looking like an exquisite piece of origami.
November 14, 2025 at 3:50 PM
alexscottfairley.bsky.social
A box of undressed, discarded #wigs left in my dressing room on tour is like catnip. Please enjoy "Which Hugh Paddick Are You Today"? #theatre #theater #RoundtheHorne #costume
Which Hugh Paddick Are You Today?
November 13, 2025 at 10:36 AM
alexscottfairley.bsky.social
Making #animal friends at the petting #zoo and feeding the #goats on my day off. Also, I think I ran about 19K in the soft play and the #playground attempting to superintend. Also, a #llama sneezed in my hair. Gross.
An alpaca, a pair of rabbits, a bagot goat, and a pair of zebra finches at the petting zoo. Me and my nephews making friends with a goat. My nephews on the playground ship (a "prison ship" apparently, according to the older one). I think this is just some sort of woodwose, though the older one was convinced it was Groot...
November 8, 2025 at 8:57 PM
alexscottfairley.bsky.social
Please can we have more like this, @penguinrandomhouse.bsky.social? It's phenomenal. Essentially a duologue based on real characters, by turns lurid, profoundly moving, though-provoking, and beautiful. #Halloween #novel #witch #book #publishing
Hilda Lewis's 1956 novel "The Witch and the Priest".
October 31, 2025 at 3:57 PM
alexscottfairley.bsky.social
#Fungi are sort of #Halloween adjacent, I guess... As it's #FungiFriday, this week's finds from Esher Common, Alice Holt, and the Malvern Hills. I haven't gotten round to all the IDs yet, so please feel free to have at them! #FungiFriends #mycology #mushroom #nature
My favorite finds on Esher Common: a tawny grisette (Amanita fulva), showing off its volva; a perfect hedgehog fungus (Hydnum repandum), showing off its teeth; an amethyst deceiver (Laccaria amethystina) showing off its beautiful violet gills. Waxcap species just beginning to emerge in Dockenfield, on the fringes of Alice Holt Forest. Corals, clubs, and stagshorns from Esher Common, and Dockenfield, through to the Bentley fringes of Alice Holt Forest. Somber fungal fall colors from Esher Common and the Malvern Hills.
October 31, 2025 at 10:46 AM
alexscottfairley.bsky.social
This piquant sign from Malvern #Theatres is just to get the attention of anyone that wanted to meet up whilst I'm in the UK! I think 3 and 15 November are my remaining #London days, and 6 November my #Guildford day! If you'd rather not, you only have 70 days til I'm safely 18,000km away again!
The (possibly rather optimistic/redundant) sign at the stage door at Malvern Theatres: "Would people who wish to obtain autographs please wait behind the railings on the pavement".
October 29, 2025 at 12:20 PM
alexscottfairley.bsky.social
I can't be in #Malvern and not summit the Malvern #Hills, even if it means doing it at almost-running pace before the show. #autumn #fall #countryside #Britain #Worcestershire
Malvern from the hills above the town. Malvern from the bracken on the hills above the town.
October 26, 2025 at 2:24 PM
alexscottfairley.bsky.social
It's #FungiFriday, so here are this week's finds! Mostly from Surrey, with a couple of Welsh finds from my tour thrown in. I think the last one is a powdery piggyback (Asterophora lycoperdides) from Alice Holt; @andyplatt.bsky.social, I think that's your stomping ground? :) #FungiFriends #fungi
Some finds from the beechwoods at Alice Holt Forest, including my first fly agaric (Amanita muscaria) of the year, and a trio of sickeners (Russula emetica). More finds from near one of the playgrounds at Alice Holt Forest, including a white saddle (Helvella crispa), which seems to grow in abundance throughout the forest. A couple of finds from Wales on my tour this week, including a handsome magpie inkcap (Coprinopsis picacea). Above, two more finds from Alice Holt Forest: an orange-peel fungus (Aleuria aurantia), and an emerging tawny grisette (Amanita fulva), looking more like an acorn in a tube! I think these may be powdery piggybacks (Asterophora lycoperdoides), parasitizing a brittlegill of some sort; found near one of the playgrounds in Alice Holt Forest.
October 24, 2025 at 10:50 AM
alexscottfairley.bsky.social
A pre- #FungiFriday surprise in one of the largest bracket fungus conks I've ever seen growing from a tree, on one of the ancient beeches at Fiddler's Elbow, near Monmouth. #FungiFriends #fungus #woods #trees
A very large bracket fungus conk on an ancient beech tree, with my hand for scale.
October 22, 2025 at 12:32 PM
alexscottfairley.bsky.social
You'd think that having successfully outsourced his portfolio to the demagogues of the world, the dark lord would have more time to sprinkle his namesake #fungi around the NNRs, but no sign of Satan's bolete in the #woods at #Monmouth. Still, aren't they STUNNING? #Wales #nature #woodland #trees
A very large beech tree at Fiddler's Elbow NNR near Monmouth, Wales. Late afternoon sun through the beech canopy at Fiddler's Elbow, one of the most westerly sites for beechwood in the UK, and also one of the most southwesterly for ancient yew groves. Looking out over the adjacent hills from Fiddler's Elbow NNR. An avenue created by the beeches at Fiddler's Elbow. No Satan's boletes, but some other nice bits and bobs that can wait for Fungi Friday!
October 22, 2025 at 12:29 PM
alexscottfairley.bsky.social
I'll be on stage when it's proper @wildflowerhour.bsky.social time, so posting slightly ahead of time! Very surprised to see all of this still out at the #nature reserve when we were in #Basingstoke earlier this week! #flower #WildflowerHour #wildflower #botany
First row, left to right: germander speedwell (Veronica chamaedrys) / teasel (Dipsacus fullonum) / blue fleabane (Erigeron acris) / cowslip (Primula veris); Second row, left to right: field scabious (Knautia arvensis) / greater knapweed (Centaurea scabiosa) / oregano (Origanum vulgare) / agrimony (Agrimonia eupatoria); Third row, left to right: self-heal (Prunella vulgaris) / sanfoin (Onobrychis vicifolia) / hedge parsley (Torilis arvensis) / meadow buttercup (Ranunculus acris); Fourth row, left to right: wild basil (Clinopodium vulgare) / red clover (Trifolium pratense) / wild parsnip (Pastinaca sativa) / rough hawkbit (Leontodon hispidus).
October 19, 2025 at 5:56 PM
alexscottfairley.bsky.social
It's #FungiFriday! Not as many around as I'd hoped in Solihull and Surrey (in Alice Holt @southdownsnp.bsky.social), but it has been very dry! Some surprise coral, a handful of waxcaps, troops of false death caps, and a lone panther cap. #fungi #mushroom #mycology #nature #FungiFriends
An ivory-colored coral, possibly Clavulina coralloides, though I find it hard to distinguish from C. cinerea sometimes. Waxcaps from the churchyard in Bentley, Hampshire, including an especially flamboyant parrot waxcap (Gliophorus psittacinus). A handful of finds from a very dry Alice Holt Forest, including a couple of the very many false deathcaps (Amanita citrina), and a solitary panther cap (Amanita pantherina). Some rather somber colors from a very small handful of fungi dotted around the River Blythe in Solihull.
October 17, 2025 at 5:15 PM
alexscottfairley.bsky.social
I'm not especially impressed by celebrity, but this is #showbiz royalty! A joy to meet the lovely Jacki Piper and Valerie Leon last night, after our show. Between them - aside from a huge body of other work - they were in eight of the "Carry On" movies! #theatre #film #CarryOn #comedy #RoundtheHorne
Three of the cast of the touring production of "Round the Horne" at Richmond Theatre, with two of the "Carry On" legends! Left to right: Alex Scott Fairley (Hugh Paddick), Eve Winters (Betty Marsden), Jacki Piper, Valerie Leon, Tim Astley (producer, and understudy Douglas Smith).
October 17, 2025 at 9:17 AM
alexscottfairley.bsky.social
Remembering to do @wildflowerhour.bsky.social this week, as I'm still in the UK, and have been touring from Surrey to Yorkshire and Warwickshire to Essex, so please enjoy these bits and bobs! #WildflowerHour #wildflower (names in ALT).
Top row, left to right: herb robert (Geranium robertianum) / common vetch (Vicia sativa) / creeping thistle (Cirsium arvense); Middle row, left to right: self-heal (Prunella vulgaris) / ivy-leaved toadflax (Cymbalaria muralis) / greater willowherb (Epilobium hirsutum); Bottom row, left to right: redshank (Persicaria maculosa) / red bartsia (Odonites vernus) / greater knapweed (Centaurea scabiosa). Top row, left to right: cinquefoil (Potentilla recta) / common toadflax (Linaria vulgaris) / hedge bedstraw (Gallium mollugo); Middle row, left to right: common tansy (Tanacetum vulgare) / bird’s-foot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus) / mouse-ear hawkweed (Pilosella officinarum); Bottom row, left to right: yarrow (Achillea millefolium) / butcher’s broom (Ruscus aculeatus) / field mustard (Brassica campestris). Top row, left to right: autumn crocus (Colchicum autumnale) / red campion (Silene dioica) / bramble (Rubus fruticosus); Middle row, left to right: common fumitory (Fumaria officinalis) / red deadnettle (Lamium purpureum) / pellitory-of-the-wall (Parietaria judaica); Bottom row, left to right: long-headed poppy (Papaver dubium) / borage (Borago officinalis) / field speedwell (Veronica persica).
October 12, 2025 at 7:28 PM
alexscottfairley.bsky.social
Another venue I couldn't resist posting some photos from. Some incredible history and illustrious company. And Ken Dodd (I get to throw shade at him twice in the show). #theatre #Leeds #play #musichall
The beautiful interior of Leeds City Varieties. Some of the illustrious footsteps we're following in... Especially illustrious (reptilian) footsteps... And Ken Dodd.
October 5, 2025 at 1:22 PM
alexscottfairley.bsky.social
It's @britmycolsoc.org.uk UK #Fungus Day today! I don't live here any more, but get to visit, so here are a few species I've found over the last 15 years or so! (adding IDs for all of them would finish me off, but happy to answer if anyone is interested!) #fungi #mushroom #mycology #FungiFriends
Some fungi in reds, yellows, and oranges, including iconic species like fly agaric, orange caterpillar club, orange-peel fungus, and chanterelle, as well as some more unusual ones such as red cage fungus, flame shield, and yellow earth fan. UK fungi species in eye-popping shades from blue to violet, including some relative rarities such as violet coral, wrinkled peach, and ballerina waxcap, as well as more common species such as plums-and-custard, blue roundhead, hare's ears, amethyst deceiver, and wooly milkcap. Even when they're in shades of brown, fungi are beautiful, so here are some including jelly baby, hen-of-the-woods, old-man-of-the-woods, magpie inkcap, and trooping crumble-cap. And yet more fungi, in shades from light brown to white, including some dapperlings and parasols, earthstars, saddles, stalkballs, clubs, and cauliflower fungus!
October 4, 2025 at 2:37 PM
alexscottfairley.bsky.social
And a bonus orange bonnet (Mycena acicula), I think, looking splendid and tiny in the rain! #fungi #mushroom
A tiny fungus in the rain, probably an orange bonnet (Mycena acicula).
October 3, 2025 at 5:02 PM