Mushroom Monday

It’s Monday here for about another hour, and I have a lot of mushroom photos to share – so you get Mushroom Monday. 😉

In between yet more storms and dressed for fall (all the layers: jacket, hat, light gloves…), we did lots of hiking this weekend. Seems like the weather hasn’t been very cooperative for much else – too windy for kayaking, and far too cold for diving. But, at least we have lots of beautiful places to explore on foot. I’ll check back in soon with some hiking images/stories. In the meantime, here are some of my favorite mushrooms from along the trails.

Have a great week! (I’ll be checking into all the blogs I’ve missed just as soon as I get my feed-reader working again!)

Transitions

Between storms yesterday afternoon, we took Petey on a couple of small adventures to nearby natural sites. We stopped first at the Seven Bridges Natural Area. It’s been over a month since I visited, and I am always surprised at the differences. Mounds of goldenrod, asters, and ragweed – of course – surround the entrance. My last visit (which I somehow missed blogging about), the area was heaped in marsh marigolds. And whereas the pasture out back was verdant and dew-coated, yesterday it was crackly and brown. Different, but still lovely.

After meandering in the meadows and splashing in the river, we hopped down the road a few miles to Rugg Pond. It’s one of my favorite places around here in the fall. Friendly trumpeter swans always float gracefully nearby (there, but not pictured), and the hardwoods surrounding the water blush all shades of beautiful. If you look closely in the photos below, you can see the tips of the oaks doing just that.

We hiked along the pond’s edge and back into the woods under skies that couldn’t decide whether they’d rather be bright and cheery or dark and stormy. Petey sniffed everything at least twice, and especially enjoyed places where other mammals had obviously been at work.

I especially enjoyed the nascent fall fungi. Or maybe they’re still late summer fungi. Can you spot the edible (fruity, chewy) chanterelles? Can you identify my favored composition for mushroom photos? 😉

Do the maroon oak leaves and red/orange/yellow fungus signal fall’s arrival, or just the end of summer? Regardless, there’s no denying fall is on its way. We will not discuss what comes after that.

Fungus Friday

You might remember, I have a bit of a thing for mushrooms. I’m especially fond of morels, because they’re delicious in addition to being fun to find, but I’m intrigued by most fungal fruiting bodies. The other day when I mowed, I even avoided a particularly large mushroom out of some kind of fungicidal guilt. Yes, seriously.

Most of the below are from our Rugg Pond adventure last night (they were everywhere on the eastern edge of the pond!), but two are from the no-kill zone in the back yard. Enjoy, and happy (fungus) Friday to you!

Sea Urchins Say Hello and Good Morning

I don’t know if it’s the cool air, the fresh rain, or the dramatic clouds – probably all three – but for the first time in a while, I was drawn outside with my camera this morning. I’m sure I looked cute, traipsing around with the hem of my pants pulled up over my knees and wet sand sticking to my toes. Yep, I’m sure “cute” is the right word 😉 You can be the judge of whether it was worth it:

Taking the U.P. by Storm – Part 2

If you followed my previous blog post, then you probably caught that I only revealed pictures and (scant) details of our hike along the Lake Superior shores in the Pictured Rocks National Park. I didn’t intentionally omit the hike details, but I didn’t want to overdo it on the words, since I know that not everyone wants to read hundreds of them. Of course, you can always scan ahead to the pictures that you’ve likely come to expect here. (Are you still reading? You are? Okay, I’ll go on.) I did intentionally split up the pictures from our trip to da U.P. because I took nearly 700 of them. I think the button must have gotten stuck on my camera 😉