Summer Daze and part of the weekend.

 Hot and mug-gley are the words for the weekend. Our friend did come. Jason has been a good guest and has enjoyed keeping Rich company with his stories and discussions.

Our upstairs doesn't have A/C so Jason made a DIY unit out of ice/cooler/rechargeable fan, and foam board. 
It works. It sort of looks like this and uses ice and a fan that can run on a battery or plug in if you prefer. 

What can I say? 
Ingenious.
His looks a bit different. He used foam for a lid and pulled or left the original lid open so he could still use it as a cooler.

I think he used a 10lb bag of ice and set things up.

I did get out and watch some more of those amazing fireflies. I was hoping the sky would clear off so I could also see the Milky Way again. No such luck.

Early Saturday morning while it was still cool, we went for a hike down the new logging trail next door and scoped out two spots Jason thought there should be more underground caves. 30 some years ago there was a 'hole' or entrance in one of the fields at the edge of the woods near a long dry run.

I was pretty sure that it had been filled in with a bulldozer by Mike around 29 years ago when the loggers had last visited and the landowner decided it was a hazard to his cattle.

The way out was a long and slow hike as Jason is still recovering from his surgery last month. He hasn't been able to get out and hike much due to some restrictions. I have photos from out adventure. Some in Infrared and some from my little red Oly TG6 [tough] camera. I keep forgetting what a great little camera it is for getting both landscape and macro shots.

Once again, under the forest canopy was the place to be. There was a very slight breeze and the ground under the trees was much cooler than that in the sunny field. Of course ... I found cool fungi. What else?

Coral Slime Mold and Coral Fungi...

The white 'coral slime mold' is as tall as the width of a nickel for size reference.

That is...small!

Jason has issues with heat and humidity doesn't help.

We took a short on the way back home and decided to take an old snowmobile trail. However. In June the trail is very narrow, the grasses and weeds are as tall as I am. 

AND...it was full of Parsnip that was flowering. Just this, the hiking challenge in the heat and humidity got a bit trickier.

After I dropped Jason off back at the house I went out for a while in the woods to have some serious quiet time. 
No conversations, no one else. Just me, the oppressive heat and old logs with amazing things growing from them and in other places ... interesting things growing up from the ground or wood chunks and roots under the dirt.

The fungi growing above is seeming to grow out of the dirt, but they could be growing out of roots or sticks. I don't know exactly what they are. They look like coral fungi, but when I look at the one below that is growing on a log, they look pretty different.

Another shot of some of the coolest and strangest looking fungi. Deadman's fingers. I found an old oak log that had been around for years. Deadman's Fungi was growing along each side of the log for the length of it. 

I've never seen that before. I couldn't get a shot of it without clearing most of the plants alongside each side of the log.

When I got back I changed into dry work clothes and started to mow the yard. I didn't finish, but finally quit and decided to cool off and eat supper.

When darkness fell, the guys went to bed and I laid down for a bit. At midnight I woke up and decided to visit with the fireflies.

The shot above was shooting east from the driveway into the neighbor's meadow. I just loved the designs the Fireflies made in the darkness. I sat on the driveway and just admired the night. The owls were busy talking and echoing through the forest.

The clouds had moved in so the stars were rather faint and I was disappointed that I could see the Milky Way.

I thought I'd try a shot up our driveway. It took two shots with two exposures and then blending them together to be able to see the driveway on the ground.

It's faint but one can see it. I did get some stars too to the south. Clouds were moving across the sky making for places that the stars were blotted out.
The result of a slightly over exposed shot and a regular LiveComp shot resulted in this shot below.
Not perfect or stellar. But I am working slowly at a way to do better.

Oddly enough, I wasn't tired and I was very relaxed while enjoying the night. It was just me, the snorting deer, in the forests, and the silent fireflies.
What more can one ask for.

These times...

 

On Monday we had our updated Covid-19 boosters. And other than a slight ache at the injection sight we've had no ill side effects. That was actually a pretty nice surprise.

Tuesday was my 'hike or ride with Olive' day. Olive had texted me Monday evening to let me know she had found the Mother Lode of cool fungi in a forest that her husband's family owns. We decided to go at 10 AM because the heat on Tuesday afternoon was to be fierce.

She had found the Mother Lode!

Shrimp of the Woods was everywhere! She picked, and I photographed. We poured out gobs of sweat and hiked ...and brush busted through the woods getting full of stick tights and all sorts of nasty little burrs. We laughed and exclaimed how fun it was to find someone else as adventurous as we two were.

Apparently her husband is not into diving through the underbrush just to find dried up old mushrooms and exclaim OHHH! AHHH! Or to grab fungi from the dirt and marvel at their beauty. [However, he will eat what she cooks!]

I learned that Olive was indeed the adventurous type. After college, she took a year and went to New Zealand to hike a 2,000 mile trail. She said it was an epic adventure and she learned by trial and error about back packing. She learned about blisters, heat rash, and dealing with forces of nature.

I told her I was jealous, but admired her.

The arrow points to some oyster mushrooms she had 'seeded' with a slurry from other oyster mushrooms she'd picked. It worked!

We hiked and explored for about 2 hours before we hopped back into her beat up Subaru and headed home. We traveled both times with the windows down as her A/C hadn't worked since she'd beat up her car when she did a short stint as a Rural Postal Carrier. 

I'd taken a lot of photos and we'd covered a lot of ground. 

We both thought it would be fun to come back after the snow fell and snowshoe through the woods.

She dropped me off.

Two hours later she texted me with an urgent message. Her parents had Covid they'd been at their house on Saturday. She had been exposed but presented with no symptoms.

Well now. 

I'm wearing a mask in the house and doing all I can to keep separate from hubby.

This morning I received an update. Olive had to take her son to the ER last night and he tested negative, but has a full blown ear infection, teething, and a cold.

Her husband is negative too. So now we just wait and see while still practicing all the cautions I can...

Ever drink coffee with a straw? 

Interesting.

Crazy about Fungi

 

I cannot recall ever finding these wild fungi before. They are growing in 'gregarious' groups and solo on this ancient dying box elder tree in the Buckthorn forest.

Though we know that box elders never really die, they just send out new shoots.

I couldn't help myself since I seem to always have a little something extra in my pockets.

I believe the proper scientific name for these are: leucopholiota decorosa. I have not found a common name for them yet.

Here is a look at what a slightly older bunch looks like:

I am so fascinated by them that I keep going back to look at them. Thank goodness, they are a short walk from the house.

A bit further down the hill I found this unidentified fungi. Looks like a Slug Love Fest going on...

I found an Artist Conk also known as a shelf polypore.

Each year I bring one home and do this:

I'm not very good at drawing with sticks. I let it dry and then bring it indoors for my fall display on a little table. It feels nice and woodsy. I know, I'm a bit odd. 

Oh! And on my way back from the woods I found very fresh Chicken of the Woods. So I picked just a little and cooked it up for us to taste. 

We lived. I may pick some more and cook them up to go with our burgers tonight. 

I couldn't resist this one either. For a long time I wanted to try this with a tiny figure and even tinier tea cup.

This is my 'creative' play. It was so hard to place that cup in a saucer and balance it on that tiny fungi. It was fun trying to find a perfect spot for the little squirrel too. I must have tried about 10 angles and different spots to shoot from.

With this tiny tea set, I got tiny plates and silverware. I have to place the silverware with tweezers because my fumbly fingers won't work with such tiny items.

The 'table' is a piece of pine bark. I just made those 'shrooms out of Magic Model clay stuff. Behind them are the twigs that are now painted and have funky moss glued to them.

Rich walks by my little thing and shakes his head then pats me on the head.

More on that at another time.

In the meantime...enjoy fall and enjoy looking at the forest floor as well as the fall foliage.

Happy Hunting....

Fall is....

Monday 

Fall seems to always make me feel in a bit of a rush. It makes me breathless and anxious as if I am going to 'miss' out on something. The days grow shorter and I watch the forest carefully. When the leaves begin to fall in earnest I feel more anxious.

So what is up with that? Maybe I wish Fall/Autumn with the leaves and color changes would last much longer. I want it to draw out like Spring draws itself out. Spring teases us bit by bit with little glimpses of things to come.

Fall rushes at us like a freight train.

Some days I want to run about willy nilly to try and capture everything going on. And between meals, regular duties, and daylight, there never seems as though there is enough time.

I did get out and walked around our area. I took Groot along just because this little ornament makes me smile each time I pull him out.

I can't help but find this expression infectious.

I did find fine little fungi. I have waited all year just to see these tiny fungi appear on a log in our forest. The log hosts a few different types of lichen and moss as well as these little guys.

And then there are the Wolf Farts. Well, not their real scientific names, but they are popping up all over. I imagine it is due to the heavy moisture that comes on fall nights.

The Blewits. I don't know, it almost sounds like a made up name for a neighbor that would move in next door and be very annoying.

As you can see, they are not an easy mushroom to spot in the woods. Yes, they are large but colored much like the leaves they are hiding in. True to their description, they are commonly found on a forest path. These were between several oaks and other hardwood trees.

Another interesting note. I tossed the one I brought home out into the pasture and my red mules ate it. 

Perhaps that is why I don't find any in their current pasture!

Here is the leaf press/flower press picture I was working on. Sorry, this is just a crappy shot of it with the glass reflection that doesn't really show how pretty it turned out. 

I took another photo of it on the wall. It really looks nice. Better yet, this was a frame and some paper I already had. So the cost was just my labor in gathering the items and figuring out how to preserve them.

I will probably change it up after I get bored at this layout.

Do you recall my search for the Hazelnut tree? Well when hiking with Aurora I found them!

I have to grab those photos off my aged computer yet.

The trees I thought were Hazelnut near my home? They have confounded me since August.

However!

I have them figured out now.

Today looks like a good day to sort my observations and photos of the few bushes and trees I've been photographing and watching since August.

Don't you just love curiosity?

Can you name it?

Not much going on right now. 

I have been wandering the woods as usual and have been finding neat and cool stuff which I have been trying to identify.

This below is something I came across while hiking on Thursday. I have found these before along the river bluffs and near pines so I am thinking this would be the proper climate for them.

Pin Cushion Moss
it grows in acidic soil in shaded forests or swamps, near bases of trees and on rock ledges... [from the Minnesota Seasons site]

I've seen these often along the areas I walk. Warner Creek, Weister Creek, and the Kickapoo River. They are so cute and distinct. One wants to reach down and touch them. They are so soft and pliable.

Here is another cool and weird looking thing I found. It is a mushroom and after a lot of searching I came up with a name for it.

The common name is Shrimp of the Woods. It is supposed to be quite edible.

This was a perplexing fungi to identify because I just thought it was strange twisted fungi growth gone all wrong.

In fact that is what the Latin name sort of implies. Entoloma arbortivum. And apparently several sources say they are easy to identify yet there is a poisonous look alike. Um. I will pass then.

These tiny orange things are pretty cool. They caught my eye because of their brilliant color on the wet wood.

I have narrowed it down to Insect Egg Slime Mold

But I found different patches of similar 'stuff' but slightly different.

Considering that it is fall, and this stuff is bright orange I will just admire it. I don't have a microscope to do any further digging. Insect Egg Slime Mold or Yellow Fuzzy Slime Cone?

While we are on orange fungi stuff, here is one I cannot ID.

It was about 6 feet above the ground growing on ... oh, crap, I never bothered to ID the tree. 

There it is, a mystery.

I did find similar but smaller ones in my own woods on dead ash trees. Does that help at all?

This one I think I do know.

It starts out like a bit of white goo, but is not gooey.

Last year I watched it slowly grow over a time frame of about a week in this very same spot. Taken September 24th 2021.

It is called Abortiporus biennis and according to the MushroomExpert.com, it comes in several forms. 

Here it is on September 27th of last year:

And....

Of course I could be completely wrong. Another name for this in its regular state is Blushing Rosette. That is when it doesn't go all 'wrong'. 

When it grows on wood stumps [I dug around and found a stump and wood under the dirt] and becomes deformed it looks like the above photo. 

Mother Nature sure is interesting.

I thought I had figured out what the following fungi were but then sort of gave up.

They are so beautiful.

They have gills and are not large, they grow on an old log. This is the second time they have grown here this year.

Then there are these and I have No Idea what they are but found them interesting. Will they grow larger or do nothing?

I have no idea what they are but with the little bit of rain and misty mornings with heavy dew, the forest in certain areas have burst forth with all sorts of cool fungi and slime molds.

I could just spend the day crawling through this one area of our forest and keep finding neat things.

But fall color and leaves are on everyone's mind. Certain reports say our area is not in full color.

In the valleys, I will beg to differ.

The photo below was shot with a graduated ND filet so the sky wouldn't be so blown out.

This is one of the back roads I take when coming back from town.

Welcome to Monday.