Let Me Explain

Spring is doing her typical thing – arriving fashionably overly late, then being coy and warm, and then cool and rainy, and then seasonably pleasant but crisp, and then snowing two inches in mid-May, and then blue skies and pleasant again.

That’s right, I said snow in May. And not just a flurry. Last Saturday, while we were attempting to track down our beloved, short-lived fungus, it snowed.two.inches. Since the weather behaved similarly poorly on Sunday, Tony and I opted to treat it like a Monday and took off work yesterday instead and enjoyed an entire sunny day of morel hunting.

May Showers Grow Morel Towers?

After several days of utterly idyllic weather – endless sun, mid-70′s, light breezes – we awoke today to not-quite-40 degrees and drizzle. While this might sound like complaint, it’s actually the opposite. The morels have just started popping up, and like so many spring ephemerals, they need water and slightly cooler temperatures to thrive. While the grass is also thriving this weekend, I’ll be out in the woods. Whistle if you need me

More Than Enough

After the austerity of winter, the abundance of spring is exuberant. The trees have sprouted baby leaves in various pastel pinks and greens, and some of the orchards have burst into bloom. Surrounded by the backdrop of the glittering bay and the warm, blue skies, the bounteous beauty is a little hard to believe.

Wine and 173 Morels

Yesterday Jess and I ventured into uncharted territory on the Leelanau Peninsula. She had seen an all-call for area photographers to shoot the Leelanau Peninsula Vintner Association’s annual Sip & Savor event, and thought it sounded like fun. She asked if I’d like to join (plus, safety in numbers, right?), and as a non-drinker, I figured volunteering as a photographer was probably my best bet to see some of the Peninsula’s 25 wineries…and with an exciting cast of characters.

My Shroom Addiction

There I said it. I am not interested in overcoming it either. Like all addicts, I don’t see a problem with it. Not really. Sure, we get up earlier on the weekends to go foraging than we do during the week. And maybe I used the restroom outside more times yesterday than inside (TMI?), but the squirrels and wolverines do the same thing. So what if all I see when I close my eyes are mushrooms? The way I see it, there’s no better place to spend a day than in the woods looking for bits of a future meal. Or simply looking.