Horse or Field?

My very good neighbour Pete was kind enough to bring me some mushrooms. He got them on the airfield where keeps his glider. For those who know me, it's fairly apparent that my mushrooming experience is somewhat limited - it predates my becoming a paraplegic in 1975! As such, I'm always grateful when anyone brings me things like mushrooms.

We were discussing this at the pub the other night (the nurse allowed me out for an hour) and none of us actually knew the difference between a 'horse' and a 'field' mushroom. Hopefully, someone will enlighten us.

Pauline got a bit 'artistic' when she photographed these! She's 'sort of' replanted them:

The mushrooms were fantastic - massive but obviously very young, presumably due to the wet weather that we've been having.

I've read online about making spore prints of mushrooms. It's a way to verify that a mushroom that you are confident is safe is what you think it is.

What I could never believe is that a mushroom with light brown gills could produce a spore that's nearly black:

But, as you can see, it's true - It's amazing!