A bit of fungi and whatnot

 Forgive this post if it seems random and disconnected. 

My brain is like that some days. It
 jumps from one place to another without
giving me prior notice!

This black icky looking stuff is Black Witches Fungi. Perfect I think for the upcoming Halloween celebration.

I found a lot of tiny fungi/mushrooms growing last week after the last rainfall. It was pretty gloomy in the woods so I took along my cell phone for added light along with a string of fairy lights.

I thought it added a fairy tale feeling to the photo. 

It was interesting enough to try a second time...
Hobby looks surprised and pleased to find such cute little mushrooms!

I did find some Shrimp of the Woods, but they were aged so I left them be. 

There is more rain coming this week with some warmer days so I could find some more interesting fungi and mushrooms. 

Fingers Crossed!

Earlier this week I decided to take a predawn hike. Thick fog was forecast but I didn't see any as I hiked up to the ridge. In fact, the whole scene was pretty drab and uninteresting.

That is until the sun broke through the clouds on the horizon and fog came sliding in from the north. I've never seen it move quite like that! It was like watching a movie of attack fog!

I'm glad I waited around for the sun to poke through the thick fog. It was beautiful.

I do enjoy those mornings when I get out by myself and just stand on the ridge and watch the sun come up. As we charge towards late fall and winter, there is something about watching the light come into the world.

I am trying to be positive about the next month and how I can visually enjoy nature's beauty. 

I think I may concentrate on some Still Life skills indoors and outside.

Last winter, I made a stick lean-too just for fun. Creating things out of sticks, glue and moss took a bit of creativity. I finally found a use for it! You can find the build I did in February here: Indoor Project

Squatch [who travels in my pocket almost all of the time] finally found a home! 

[For this shot I added little fungi to the house. I had to be quick with setting up and taking the shot as the sunlight moves off quickly!]

I thank Boud -- from Blogger for some of her ideas involving leaves, cornhusks and weaving of natural fibers for creative ideas. I also thank Aurora for this marvelous little Squatch guy. He really does get around!

In fact, it seems as if Squatch found his half brother Big Foot wandering around. 

I guess they decided to get together and discuss their other half brother, Yeti. Apparently they plan to embark on a journey to find him in the Big Woods and they hope to spend the winter together.

They heard that Yeti prefers the snow and cold. Would he sit by the fire with them? Or would he build an igloo? Time will tell!

Happy Wanderings and Exploring!

Shinrin-yoku

 ....

I have a standing 'date' so to speak with a young mom who also works full time. We meet on Tuesdays and go for a walk. 

This time we went back to the Mason Land. I'm not sure why it is called that, perhaps because someone named Mason may have owned it. The land was passed down through family ties. Anyway, it is there and we went back to it today.

We just walk and brush bust and look for interesting things. We wander in the woods, collecting burrs on our clothes and ducking branches. 

We were searching for fungi after the rain we had yesterday. And we found some. Mostly it was either dried up stuff or tiny little fungi blooming in the moisture from the rain.

There was an old chair we found tipped upside down at the base of an old towering oak tree. I flipped it over and proclaimed it to be Olive's new Remote Work Office.

She gave me a look and then laughed and sat in the chair and posed like this:

I told her that I loved to find old chairs that hunters have left in the woods for selfies. Why not? 

[Years before those fancy fold up hunting chairs were invented, hunters brought out old metal chairs and set them in the woods. Heck, that may have even been before tree stands were invented! Tree Stands? I have my own opinion on them...but I won't write about it here. I wrote about THAT in 2010 A Hateful Woman or Stupid Man Invented Tree Stands.]

Here I am in my New Office:

Yeah, in case you are wondering, we don't wear our good clothes while rummaging through the wild woods. 

Good conversation and laughter are things we both need. She as a young mom and a hard worker, me? Well,... you know me.

We take this time once a week to goof off for about an hour or so. 

We explore. Laugh. Point out strange and odd things.

We found Yellow Fairy Cup Fungi:

Witch's butter:

Woods Ear or Amber Jelly Roll:

Shaggy Scaly Caps:

The little Lego dude says -- don't eat this!

We found lots of these mainly on Boxelder Trees.

Fungi we found that was neat but I couldn't ID it at all. 

Not Chicken of the Woods:

We did find Hen of the Woods.

I cannot believe I didn't photograph it, but I was distracted by the amazing scene and took photos of the oak that had Hen of the Woods at its base. Maybe because the fungi was old and dried up and...well, looked just nasty!

This rock formation looks like a granite pile of huge rocks. Almost like the earth below thrusted it up in the middle of the woods.

Olive and I want to come back and explore the rocks one day. 

Both of us have to admit that a little bit of outdoor play time or forest time is essential for a good state of mind.

A little shinrin-yoku goes a long way.

Shinrin-yoku is the Japanese saying for Forest Bathing or simply immersing yourself in nature for your health.

Rain, Slugs, and Bugs

So the rain brought out Slugs and bugs...

And very cool fungi. Some sort of slime mold??? 

Found Black Nightshade. Nasty stuff.

Slug heads in Fungi.

Witch's butter perhaps? Being guarded by my tiny soldiers.

Bright yellow slime mold. Some of it creeping over the Witch's Butter.

Chicken of the Woods? Old?

Grasshopper.

A sluggo stand off...

A very cheerful dog enjoying the cooler weather...

Ready???

Hummingbird Moth!

This is the fastest moving moth I have ever encountered and this is only the second time in 30 years that I've seen one. The first time I could only watch and wonder.

It probably took at least 30 or more tries before I finally got half way decent shot of this moth.

It's wings are translucent and it is sort of beautiful and ugly at the same time. 

That was my rainy day. Not that interesting unless you are a bug or slug or some sort of slime mold.

However.

I had some very cool stuff happen today. Thursday. I'm still mulling it over.