Color Blasts

 

The above photo was taken while it was drizzling and very overcast. Charlie and I decided to go to our favorite place to go for a hike despite the weather. When I saw the incredible colors on the hillsides, I found a side road to pull off on and stop.

I live in the likes of these hills and heavy forests. This side road is on the flood plain of the Kickapoo River. It is one of the rare 'flat' areas in the region. 

Since I live surrounded by large forests and valleys, I enjoy walking in the morning and afternoon to catch the sunlight that streams down on changing leaves.

The colors are beautiful as they always are. I imagine that things will really get going and be done within two weeks around here. 

The deep forest is still quite green in most areas but splashes of color are all peeking through.

This time of the year I generally walk up and down this old 4 wheeler trail and watch as the forest turns colors.

In a few more years, the forest will grow back over the trail and it will be hidden from view, but for now, I'll enjoy it.

Soon all these maples and other trees will start to drop their yellow leaves and the path will look golden. Then...it all disappears. In the late fall and winter, this makes for an interesting walk too. 

I went by one of the wild apple trees and decided to pick some for some apple sauce or more jelly. This tree is fun to watch in the late fall from a stand I have in my pasture. The deer come through late fall and winter to eat the fallen fruit.

Walking back to do chores I found another huge flush of Chicken of the Woods! This time on an old Ash tree stump that we'd tried to burn. This is our old brush pile.

Seems the color theme of the day was of reds, yellows, and orange colors!

I'm so pleased that my Lego People are always around to lend a hand.

Cats, dogs, leaves, fungi

Charlie sits on the porch bench and surveys his domain. 

Eleanor takes a nap in the sun next to the old garage.

Our neighbors got Eleanor for the purpose of getting their garage and workshop rid of mice. She is spayed and has had her shots.

Eleanor prefers to hunt in my two sheds, sleep in the piles of hay, and annoy Charlie. Such is a cat's life. With her around, some of the varmints seemed to have moved on. 

My neighbor puts out cat food for her and she still seems to prefer our place although we do see her trekking back up the hill once in a while. On hot days I put water out in a few spots for her so she doesn't have to climb the stock tank and take a drink.

Charlie has decided that since Eleanor will run if he chases her, she is good game. He will never catch her, but he sure tries.

Eleanor is definitely not a house cat and she won't let humans get too close either. However, she seems to be doing just fine.

We had extremely dense fog yesterday morning. When Charlie and I went for a walk in the forest to look for colors in the leaves, we found this:

A huge 'Flush' of Chicken of the woods that was very fresh. I was able to pick about 4 lbs of them and I texted Olive to see if she wanted some. 

I made a supper of Chicken Fried Chicken of the Woods, rice, and a salad with Nasturtiums on them.

It was delicious! 

We did find some leaf color in the woods and I hope to get out and look for some more [leaves and fungi!] today.

In the photo below with the Maple Leaf, there are some dried up Oyster mushrooms--not good to eat or pick in this condition. But I was still rather surprised to find them.

The afternoon sunlight really popped the colors in this slippery elm tree. However, a quick thunderstorm moved in ...

and we had to run for cover!

The winds blew, the thunder roared and the leaves from the trees swirled!

Slow motion video clip of 26 seconds.

I'm looking forward to a quiet Sunday of processing carrots and Chicken of the Woods to make mushroom stock for winter soups.

Chicken of the Woods, pizza, and flying things

 Our first Chicken of the Woods this year. I've seen better, but these were delicious!

September 1st. 

How lucky is this? I noticed these yellow Chicken of the Woods growing on an old oak trunk not far from the porch! 

September 2nd, 24 hours later after a rain.
The dirt on top is really wood dust from the mud daubers that are nesting in the trunk above the Fungi.

September 3rd.
It is getting bigger!

I received a text from Olive. Would we like a homemade pizza with Chicken of the Woods from the other day? She'd deliver it as a 'take and bake'.

I never turn down food that someone else makes especially those that are much better cooks than I am. After all, she went to Culinary School! She then sends me a photo of the dough she is making.

You guessed it, from scratch!

Yes! Yes!

She and Aiden delivered it and I set it in the house to bake while I walked them back to their car. Aiden wanted to pet Little Richard and ran after Sven who was tied in the yard. I told her I'd be getting the Chicken of the Woods off the big trunk the next morning before the mud daubers woke up.

I did not get a photo of the pizza because when I got back to the house, Rich was digging into it. I told him I had to bake it to melt the cheese and he shrugged and handed me what he had left.

It was delicious and something I would never imagined to make. NOT only that, it was healthy! Zucchini, plum tomatoes, homemade sauce, kale, and other veggies from her garden. I didn't tell Rich what all was in it, he would have turned his nose up at it.

September 4th.
They look ready! I cut from underneath to avoid having to deal with all the wood bits that were imbedded in the fungi. Apparently a polypore will just grow right over the wood chips or dirt and be inside the fungi.

While I was cutting them, I heard a loud buzzing noise and it sounded like a flying tractor of some sort.

An ultralight. 
Now the mules generally don't spook at the low C-130's as they fly at this level over our fields, but they were rather irritated by this BIG Mosquito.

I got a text from Olive.
'Did Dan just land in your pasture?'
Me: Nope, but the mules would have mobbed him if he did.
So it was Dan the Real-estate man that had a new toy. Well, his business must be doing well!

Olive lives on the ridge and I am jealous of her open sky view. However, I am not jealous when the winter winds blow up there and we don't have harsh winds.

This morning's end result is laid out on my porch table. 

I'll give Olive half and I will dehydrate my half.

Good neighbors are fun to have.

Busy Week

Charlie digs the little hammock I have for our summer afternoons of laziness under the Hickory tree. He can lay on my chest and watch for squirrels and birds and I can swing slowly in the breeze and watch the sky.

Thursday morning was one of our typical foggy mornings were it was warm and sticky. I thought I'd be smart and walk down through the woods and check for Chicken of the Woods or something interesting before it got really muggy.

I found these!

Chicken of the Woods! Now I've seen them before and even tried a tiny bit last year. But since my neighbor Olive raved on about them, I picked some and then sent her a photo asking if this was what she was talking about. I picked them, afraid that the slugs lining up would really mess them up.

She started texting back at how THIS was it and they were delicious! I said I could bring it to her and she asked if she and her son Aiden could come down in the afternoon and I could show her the other ones. 

Of course!

Ever take a two year old on a hike in the woods? He really did quite well. When she set him down, he grabbed sticks and scooted around on logs and even helped pick more Chicken of the Woods. We ended up with a really big pile.

I took them down into the Meadow and a short way down the forest trail to see some fungi she'd described.
The books describe it as False Coral Fungi and it has a horribly long scientific name. Though it looks like bird droppings when it first starts, but generally grows on Oak roots from under the ground.
Cool beans, right?

Aiden saw the mules and ran with his toddler legs. The mules all stood quietly and watched. All of them have been around babies and toddlers before. [Mom caught him before he got to the fence.]

Aiden's face when he saw the mules...

I really get a kick out of some of the common names of fungi. The one below is perhaps...White Cheese Polypore. Not necessarily something you would want to eat though.

 

The thrill of the afternoon was Aiden discovering our 4 wheeler parked in the yard. He just had to sit on it and 'drive' it. Boys and machines!

I walked with Olive back home while she pulled Aiden in the Radio Flyer. I carried the big loot we'd gotten and she said she'd prep it and freeze some for us. I told her to make sure she had enough for them to enjoy and freeze too.

She commented on how fun it was to meet someone who liked doing what she did. And how hard it generally was to ask anyone to go into a messy forest on a hot day and look for fungi.

We sure had a laugh over that.

Olive said she had wanted to walk down to our place and meet us, but never wanted to be a bother. 

I guess we got over that part rather quickly. We know that we both are busy people. Her with her job and her son. Me with my hubby and critters.

But we may find some time here and there to do things both of us enjoy.

That is a win-win for for the both of us. Let's see what happens.

Today is a day for appointments. I have to see the eye doctor again. My vision has changed again since March. 

Hot and Humid

Hot 
Humid
Wet
Holiday Weekend

That is the weather this week which is good for the crops and not so good for mowing or enjoying the outdoors. 

I did spend a whole day though cleaning up the upstairs of the house. Both the East Wing and the West Wing [ ~~ tiny little rooms in our story and a half cottage ~~] got deep cleaning. 
I did some purging while I was at it.

My walks have been short and after Charlie nagged me one morning, I decided to take him along with my long lens on a walk to the mailbox. 

This wren kept chattering at us so I stood still and waited for her to land on something. I was pleased that she was singing her morning songs. 

We got to the ridge and I grabbed the mail which was just junk mail. It was a flier advertising a Huge Sale! All mattresses must GO! Store Closing!

That store has been closing for about a year now. 

I tucked the ad under my arm and decided to look at the weeds along the ditch to search for insects.

I was so pleased to find this beauty. I think it is a Spotted Skipper, however I am not sure as the wings in this light almost appear blue tinted.

This one could be some sort of Spotted Fritillary. I call it 'little brownish spotted butterfly'.

However, my buddy didn't think too much of our little side trip.

I wanted to just walk down a ways and look a tiny bit more... and so I called Charlie...and got this...

I agreed with him and turned around to take him home. Once he got in view of the house, he trotted the rest of the way to the porch door and stood looking at me. Little dogs get the heat from the ground and his short nose doesn't allow him to cool off very well. 

My morning walks are the highlight of my day right now. I do it early as the weather is hot and mugg--ly.

This is from my morning foraging walk. Oops! I should have left my camera sitting in a bag on the porch for a while before taking it out in the extremely hot and humid climate.

[This was one of those days where the dew point and temperature were just about the same degree!]

Stupid me. But there it is:

I'd stopped here to photograph a fawn laying down in one of the mule trails but got a fogged lens instead.

I did see this fawn on the way back though!

My morning foraging looked very promising.

This is my creek or was the creek until the drought hit. For the first few years I lived here, it was like this. Then we had some flash floods and for many years water always flowed over the rocks but no more than a few inches deep.

It is almost moist and cooler in this bottom. Beware though, the rocks are like walking on marbled ice.

Yep, marbled ice is a good description. The bruises on my gluteus maximuses will be a good judge of that. 

However, I was more interested in getting some delicious oyster mushrooms for supper and some to dehydrate.

On the way back home with my goodies, I found some chicken of the woods...I think. These did not look appetizing at all with the amount of icky looking gnats and bugs on them. 

But the blaze orange color is hard to miss.

And then more cool bugs. A Hover Fly and an inch worm on the head of a yarrow blossom.

So what is this hot and humid weather good for?

Well.

It is good for short excursions into the woods to find neat insects, wild flowers, and wicked cool fungi and slime molds while picking black raspberries!

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....