How do you get into the mush-room? Ring the porta-bella? What does a mushroom buy when it’s having a mid-life crisis? A spores car. NOooo more-I promise! Ha!
We have certainly had enough rain this Summer! I’m not complaining given what our Western neighbours, family and friends are going through out on the West coast, but really, just one dry day would be fine say the Mewberries!
We have had some wicked clouds and shows of lightning! I wanted to go out a few nights back but the thought of battling the mosquitos was too much, I’d had my fill of them while looking for mushrooms along the road. Everytime I leaned over to photograph one, I’d get a bite in the ass! “ENOUGH!” I said! Ha!
At the end of our driveway hundreds of these small Common Gilled Mushrooms had popped up! Everywhere you looked, there was something else, then I saw purple, yes, purple!
These were fabulous! Complex Clavaria amethystina…Purple coral on land I call it;) then behind them…
Jelly babies? Yellow Unicorn Entoloma? What? You don’t need to take mushrooms to see the wild out here;) Ha!
It boggles the mind. Reminds me of skin diving as a kid and seeing all the coral colours! Just sharks and barracudas to fend off, not clouds of mosquitos…the sharks were easier! 😉
Some of the fungi have slug friends! I found these tiny 1/4″ across fungi as I kneeled down to take a shot of the Earth tongues! Cannonball Fungus?! So much fun to see something new, and all the spindles and fingers, fairy fingers, not dead Children’s fingers, not apropriate I imagine;)
The bright red and yellow Chanterelles have made an appearance as well as another new to me fungi-Hedgehog!
You have to be a bit of a masochist to brave the bush right now, not that I’m going to start flogging myself but hey, can we talk the mosquitos into eating mushrooms instead of me? Ha! All worth it for this cool one…a Wood Hedgehog-Hydnum repandum I think. Check out how it has nubs instead of gills underneath…then, there’s a Depressed one as well? Why so sad?;) Several had been dug up and overturned…did you know black bears eat fungi! Mushrooms are a regular part of an omnivorous bear’s diet, especially during late summer and autumn when fruiting bodies pop up after rain and bears forage heavily to build fat reserves before winter! I would rather not run across one on the road thanks! The local juvenile crossed the road in front of a friend’s car early one afternoon at the top of our hill, probably going for a drink at the small creek and some fungi lunch?
Then there are the ones you really should not eat!…and so many I just don’t know about! I’m thinking anything called Eastern Destroying Angel, Coral Slime, Stinking Dapperling or Vampires Bane might be avoided!
What an amazing world, then there are the Bolettes and so many other beautiful brown mushrooms!
The tree fungi are so cool, so many colours there as well! So far no Chicken of the woods but I’m still looking!
Then sometimes you come across a bug hot tub;)
That’s what I get for walking after a heavy rain! Then there’s Brittlegills and Milkcaps and Shiny polypores?!
What about some nice Dog Vomit Slime Mold? or other white fluffy things you have no idea what they are until you put them into iNaturalist!
One of my favourites that we haven’t seen much of this year are the beautiful white Ghost Pipes, not really a fungi I learned after starting to read about them as the bumblebee feeding on it had me stumped! 🙂 While walking out the road a ray of sun coming through the trees was lighting them up! I always thought they were mushrooms but NO! They are a herbaceous, parasitic, non-photosynthesizing, perennial flowering plant native to temperate regions of Asia, North America, and northern South America! Very cool!
Mother Nature never ceases to amaze me! Just the simple Milky Caps after a rain, or a beautiful puffball growing out of a crack in the rocks!…priceless! I am thankful to have friends who really know mushrooms to let me know Id’s, I post them on iNaturalist as well to get ideas but that is not always right! Thank you Valerie and Fee Fi Fungi and Fauna for giving us a spot to share our fun and finds!
Occaisonally I have a visitor out there while I’m down on my knees trying to get a shot! Fun to watch them watching me;)
I’m not alone, ever, I know that! From insects and slugs to House Slytherin when I’m poking about looking at things, everything! This Gray Rat Snake was a beauty!
But honestly, I have so many bites I am giving the road a rest for a few days to recooperate, and scratch away! I’ll enjoy the storms and sunrises and weird mists and let those bug bites heal! It’ll be back to looking for squishy things very soon! Wait, there’s plants and flowers and birds as well! The bear can keep to himself though, unless he wants to put in an appearance outside the kitchen window one morning with the sun hitting him just right! Ha! Saludos amigos, hasta pronto!
