Another Exciting ... Day!

 Of course there has to be fungi, slime molds, alligators, rocks, fishies, rain, picnic, and fishing involved.

I went out early to find my fungi friends and admire slime molds. Yeah, I am strange but I love the beautiful world of the odd things in the forest.

Chocolate Tube Slime mold ... with mold on top of it!

Coral Slime Mold...finger for perspective.

With all the wet and humid weather I have found lots of Deadman's Fingers growing near many of the old oak tree logs. These logs have been on the ground for nearly 20 years. You won't find these on newly downed logs.

This is a curiosity.

It is called Shotgun Fungi/ Shotgun Slime Mold/ Artillery Fungus/ Hat Throwing Fungus... this particular kind grows on Equine Manure.

 I know, gross, but kind of cool. 

The spores can be ejected up to 18 feet.

What it looks like from a distance. What can I say?...

It is so cool and weird at the same time.

This rainy humid weather is awful for so many things. However, it delights me to scrounge around the forest and look for bizarre things.

Not so bizarre is finding Oyster Mushrooms and bringing them home for a side dish.

Wednesday was fishing day.

 Getting Rich to the table was an extra human effort since he can barely walk. But Steve and I got him there. Rich did catch a Bullfish.

Ewww, he tossed it back. Here he is wearing a clear poncho as there was a light rain. He son took it off because it wasn't bothersome.

While the guys fished and Steve baited for Rich and assisted him, I walked around to enjoy the views.

I did spot Cormorants, but they were far way. I've never seen them before so it was fun to watch them fish. I did grab this shot of the Blue Heron that saw me. Mostly, I just walked around and enjoyed watching the guys fish.

The skies looked threatening but only gave us a light drizzle on and off.

Of course, I had to get my Lego folks out.

This is the ME minifig and Charlie....

You never know what to expect at the river!

Be Careful!

Steve is now used to my Lego Antics. When we got Rich to another spot, we really had to struggle to get him through some loose rocks.

This was a good spot and they had a lot of fun watching the turtles try to take the worms. 

Rich did catch a fish!

There was a lot of laughter for that.

Here was my Lego scenario for the trek through the loose rocks.

Life in Hospice can be interesting and bittersweet.

One knows that time is probably short. However it is also a time to shine with friends and family.

I don't know how to explain it. But this time has been more joyful. Pain is managed, and our main goal is comfort and doing things for the patient. Rich looks forward to the times Steve shows up and things happen.

Our Grand daughter Ariel will come for the holiday weekend and stay over. She wants to cook another supper for us and just hang out. 

I wonder what we may do next week? Rich was really tired out from this fishing trip and it took him a full day of naps to recover. However, he is looking forward to the next adventure.

In the Zone

Right now the fun is never ending. I keep ignoring my Nature photos at the moment as Nature is teasing us with all sorts of wild weather.

I had a really nice compliment on a photo I did of Princess Sara in an email from a Lego Ambassador last week. I used a tutorial by FourBricksTall and tagged her in my write up on Flickr. I read that and felt inspired and had an AH HAH... moment.

I won't be a pro toy photographer ever or be hired by Lego any time ever. But I felt like my efforts of creativity and explorations were somewhat vindicated. 

Any...way...more about getting into the Zone. After that my head burst with all sorts of ideas. You know, the stuff that bangs around in that empty space of a brain. That echo chamber. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I first got this Lego minifig last Spring. I had her in my pocket in May while I was hunting fungi and other things as they came up from the forest floor. I decided her name would be Sara the Brave and she would be a Princess when I first set her on a mossy stump.

I really liked her but couldn't for the life of me figure out her 'Story'. Well, that is until I set up the photo I did a while ago. I plucked her off the shelf where she spent nearly a whole year and made her a central character in an adventure. 

Truly, I don't know where that adventure will take me, but I am glad to have Sara out and about. She makes an interesting character that wields a stick horse and a sword.

I walk around in the forest looking for cool things. The minifigs bounce around in their containers in my backpack. Some days I hike and never take them out. And then some days, things just click and I know that I found yet another clue in Sara's journey.

Of course she will find exotic looking plants and...

well...

it looks like those other forest critters may be watching her!
That looks like Big Foot is spying on them!

Will she meet some of those other fierce warrior women?
How about Ariel who also wears the blue knight armor just like Joan of Knight? 

She is an exceptional warrior who loves to fish.

Sometimes she even gets them to jump right out of the water!

 [Trick photography! I hot glued floral wire around the fish tail and pushed it into the stream bottom. I took the shot with the wire in the photo and took a shot without the fish there.👇]

I set the camera up to take 5 photos in a row while I threw rocks into the stream for splashes. 

The magic happens when you stack the two photos on top of each other and simply erase the wire. The photo in the second layer is just a shot of the Lego figure by itself. This was a trick I learned by watching a video by a Toy Photographer who goes by SirDork. 

While I was at it, I found another spot where Hannah the Hunter was. It seems she is looking for something in the forest also. 

Will all of these characters eventually find each other? I don't know. 

For now? Anything can happen.

One other note. Spring will be emerging all over the forest. I see the signs of Spring Beauty leaves poking up out of the leaves. I saw bluebells emerging too. It feels like this next snow/sleet/rain event is just telling us to be patient.

Suddenly Spring will emerge like a racehorse out of the gate.

But for now, I'm in the Zone... 

the play Zone.

What should we do today?

"What do you want to do?" I asked hubby as he sat at the kitchen window and stared out at the cloudy dismal looking day.

"Is it going to clear up?" he asked. I checked the weather. 40% chance of showers on and off during he day. I told him that.

"Is it going to clear up?" he asked again.

I shrugged and then replied, "Well what are you thinking?"

"Well, if it is going to clear up, then we could try Runge Hollow and go fishing." He stated.
Rich had fishing on his mind. Funny how when a thought these days comes into his head, it gets stuck and rumbles around repeatedly over and over. No fault of his though, the though rattles about until we address it in one way or another.

"We have rain gear," I reminded him, "some pretty good rain gear. Why don't we just grab it and go? We can pick up worms on the way through town."

He stared out the window for a bit without seeing anything. Once that look concerned me as he would be having obtrusive PTSD thoughts of combat long ago.
Now after the stroke he had told me, things are just blank. Nothing is there.
He seems more soft and not as harsh around the emotional edges.

I got up from the table and grabbed his rain gear and then directed him step by step on items we needed. On days like this, he needed more than the usual guidance.
In no time at all we were headed towards Runge Hollow.

And it did rain off and on.
You can't see it in these shots, but when we had 6 or more inches in a 24 hour period in July the water rose in this man made lake up at least 5 feet, the leaves on the trees on the opposite edge of the lake had mud on them.

Runge Hollow Dam holds back some of the Bad Axe River and keeps it from flooding out those downstream from it. Our county has a series of man made lakes and dams that are flood control projects.

We fished the rest of the day and enjoyed the peace and quiet of having the place all to ourselves. And yes, we got enough to have a nice supper on Friday night.

The other side of the Dam...

Our fishing spot for most of the afternoon.

If you look hard you can see Rich down next to the intake. There is a vehicle in the upper left driving up County Road Y which is on top of the dam.

A view across from the dam where the boat dock used to be along with the wheel chair access. I believe they were washed away in the flood last September of 2016.

I learned that just because it is raining, it doesn't mean you can't go fishing.
I recall something my Grandfather Fred used to say.

"It's raining outside, let's have a picnic!"

It never really made sense. But now I can say..."It's raining outside! Let's Go Fishing!"