Flowers

 Things are really popping with colors.

Here is one of my Wild Gardens with about 25
Sunflowers.

Nasturtium..

These are my tried and true flowers...

I think I'll go with mostly these 

next year around the porch.

Bug!

Best guess?
Damselfly resting on a Blazing Star in

my east garden.

 

We've been taking evening walks and early morning walks. 

I sometimes just let the dogs lead on my land and follow them through brambles and brush.

I'm glad I did.

Ghost Pipe Plants also known as Monotropa uniflora

Another evening bonus.

Black Berries. Generally our forest isn't blessed with a lot of them. But.

This summer they are flourishing.

...and then.

As I picked them and ate them both

Charlie and Hannah had to investigate.

I handed berries to Charlie.

I handed berries to Hannah.

Hannah figured out she could pick her own.

and on the way home she hunted berries and found them in underbrush were I wouldn't have looked. 

Now we've been going out to the forest in the evenings to hunt up dessert. 

I came, I saw, I Blewit

Starting in late August through October if we are not in a drought, it is prime time for mushrooms and a celebration of strange and colorful fungi.

Someone asked me what got me so interested in mushrooms. My simple answer was that I'd seen them and decided I'd like to photograph them.

I like being curious. When I'd find wildflowers, I'd photograph them and take them home to compare to an ID book. Mushrooms and slime molds became fun to find and fascinating to photo. It is like an alien world.

I took these with my cellphone as it seems to adjust to the light better than the camera. They are small. The one below was just emerging from the mix of dirt and sand below it. 

 

I also found what seems to be a hard plant to find. I've only found 6 in all the years I've been hiking. They are not generally seen right next to a trail. I just love their leaves and design. I've seen one in flower one time.

Rattlesnake Plantain:

I also brought along a couple of minifigs. They like to travel and hike with me of course. I found a perfect spot to place the Monkey King.

Last but not least.

I thought I found a Blewit Mushroom

Such a beautiful blue color! So different! I've found them once before in this general area and am always amazed by their color and beauty.

4 years ago in the same general area I found these. 

They are so startling. Another time I found remnants of them as someone else had walked along and kicked all of them to smithereens. 

I do wish people would just admire these beautiful mushrooms and leave them alone.

I looked into the Blewit mushroom and found that these really didn't quite fit the description. Perhaps they could be a fungi known as Indigo Inky.

So I may have blown the ID years ago, but that doesn't stop me for looking for these each year along this section of trail.