Showing posts with label black tulip fungi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label black tulip fungi. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 11, 2022

My Life in Legos

No lens envy here!


Black Tulip Fungi!


The ferns are coming up!


Time to clean up the garden!


Or stop to photograph insects!


See the Miner Bee?
Look at the arrow.
What a lucky shot!


Hostas!


Call out the 
heavy equipment to 
move rocks!


Go looking for Morels
Uh OH
Not False Morels!


Wow we found 
Pheasant Backs!




Wow, it is SO HOT
and NO breeze down here in
the Valley!

Let's just cool off.


What a marked difference from last week. It was rather cold and dreary with lots of rain.

Now? Hot and muggy! 

I don't know about any of you guys but I sure had a hard time adapting this week! 
This heat and humidity makes me feel like....



Whew! Turn off the heat and turn on the AC?







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.