Friday, April 30, 2021

The calm of the Forest

Day two after Vaccination. Rich told me I had to rest and relax and chill.

I told him I was fine. He argued that I wasn't. Our vacation from MDD is on its way out. He is entering another black zone. It creeps up quietly and it ebbs and flows. Things are worse when you combine MDD and dementia. Anyway I won't write about it here much. I'll drop my thoughts in The Long Road later.

First thing I did was go searching for the trees that could possibly help me find morels. According to the experts, Ash Trees don't produce tons of morels. I will beg to differ with them. The ash trees in our woods have always produced as they die from the emerald ash borer.

Below is the inside of the bark I found at the base of the tree where I find the first of the morels each year. There is a stand of trees that are slowly dying off and ... well, if we get rain, I should have more morels. Well, that is the hope.


I did pick the one I found and cooked one single one for Rich. Seems a steak and morels always make him smile.


I found this tiny bee working on a dandelion in the pasture. My pony and the goat just adore the dandelions blossoms!


For your entertainment. Goat and Pony at work in the Junk Yard section. MIL's car is there. Hubby is sure there is stuff he needs to get out of the trunk. He is sure it runs. He is adamant that nothing is wrong with it. So having it hauled away is proving to be an issue....but I digress...


I did find Black Tulip Fungi while seeking out trees. They are related to the Red Cup Fungi and is a sure sign that spring is here. 

These two were growing nearly side by side in a tiny grove of dying trees.



They were growing close to some forest lilies that are very small. It was here that I sat on a log and watched the wrens flutter about picking nesting materials. I really think I could have stayed there all day.

I did go back to the house. Rich went back to bed and slept for most of the morning. I decided it was a good morning to wash the porch windows, screens, and then the siding on the porch. Then I cleared the porch off and sorted everything.

A rinse was in order. Perhaps it was my spring cleaning of the porch! 

I'll wash the ceiling of the porch later this year. I have to work on plants to put along the front of the porch. I haven't decided what I want yet. Something colorful and very heat tolerant. 

The year I had zinnias, cosmos, and sunflowers was so fun. I could watch the bees and the birds from close up. The other half didn't like it. 

Photo from my 'porch' garden two years ago:


I spent the rest of the day doing stuff, like grooming the mules and cleaning up the spring flower gardens. 

It was exciting to watch a storm cell come in and we actually had rain for a bit!

[Infrared shot of the storm cell coming across the pasture. The clouds and sky really pop out with IR.]


This weekend I plan on finishing up pulling and piling dried burdock to get rid of and put the 'kids' out in one of the wooded pastures.


And that is it.

I have a hiking date today to show Bill how to get to the bird blind to watch cranes and geese nesting in the ponds.

Late this afternoon, I plan on working on my Forest Garden. Thank goodness for spring and all the work I can do in the forest.


 

5 comments:

  1. Dementia sucks. It is good that you can get outside...the porch looks great! Your grass is greener than ours...we are dry. The morels should go nuts soon!

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  2. Cool mushroom. I'm so jealous about finding the morel. We have seen none so far. ( kind of dry here) The Black Tulip cup looks very similar to the "devil's Urn" we have here. I mistakenly thought it was a black trumpet at first.( Good hing I did not try to eat them.... then again, I don't think they are poisonous. ) I'm not sure if devils urn and black tuplis are the same mushroom. your picture looks more like a tulip while the ones around here look a little thinner. But yea, we usually find them at the same time as the red cup fungus.

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    1. Yes, I wasn't sure if it was a black tulip or the devils urn or what. Just that they are neat and much like the red cup fungi. I wouldn't try to eat them. However I do wonder about the Pheasants Back. I found a nice one and heard they can be eaten.
      We are under a Fire Watch here. I don't expect to find any more morels until it rains.

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  3. Wow, so much texture on that morel photo!! I've never tried a morel, but people sure love them. I usually grow a few zinnias, and always sunflowers. The past few years I saved seeds from my sunflowers, and fed the rest to the birds. I tried saving zinnia seeds for the first time last year, will see how/if they grow. It is good to get a head start on outside chores before it gets too hot & buggy.

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    1. I save Zinnia and 4 oclock seeds along with cosmos. They grew like crazy last year.
      For the morel photo I used my little pocket Oly TG 6, it has a wonderful feature in the macro section that will stack 4 photos into one. Morels are so hard to photograph because of their texture.
      I was very hesitant when I first tried a morel. My grandmother had told me as a kid that all mushrooms were deadly. This of course when we were picking weeds to eat with our supper!

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