It’s not all flowers here in my garden.
I found this little colony of cup fungi while weeding.
I have looked in all my books, but there is no perfect match.
The white stalk and jelly inside do not fit with all the photos.
Anybody out there know their name?
FLOW
You may have noticed my latest posts are a little mushy.
It’s this R A I N.
Oh my. It has caught me at a bad part of my maintenance cycle.
I did get some weeding done, but ran out of mulch.
So that means W E E D S.
I am amazed how much growth has occurred this week.
I wish I had placed measuring sticks by each Hosta.
There are some upsides to the downpours.
I found some perfect animals tracks in the mud.
and then there are the mushrooms.
And let’s not forget the necessity for new garden clogs while my many pairs of shoes dry
after washing them.( Attention: Shrub Queen)
These are Backdoor Shoes. I will let you know how they hold up.
Here is the second daylily to bloom. Dixie Boy.
FLOW
This life lesson started out with a lost lens cap.
It fell out of my pocket in the woods.
Now it’s fall here.
So if I don’t find it soon, it will be covered with leaves.
There are no paths in my woods.
I meander around without much notice of my location.
These are my woods. I can’t get lost, but a lens cap can.
I felt obliged to go look for it. It would be easier to find a needle in a haystack.
I took my camera, as usual.
I was looking for a round, dark, man-made object.
Here are my pictures from the search.
Round, dark, man-made objects. Blah!
Today, I went into my woods looking for nothing.
I found everything!
Moss, mushrooms, fairy houses, lichens…
and (NO LIE) the lens cap.
Open mind… Open eyes…
See everything while looking for nothing.
Go with the FLOW.
My sister and I found all these different life forms growing on and in one old tree.
It was like a treasure hunt.
This tree is a treasure.
FLOWER
I went into the woods this evening
to try to locate a lovely bracket fungi that I had photographed previously.
I needed to look up to find it,
but one must always look down while walking in the woods.
This is how I found the path…
of white mushrooms.
Yes, they are poisonous Amanitas. They are lovely but deadly.
Fear not. I was following their path, not eating them.
A circle of these is called a fairy ring, so I thought of this as a fairy path.
If YOU found a fairy path in the woods wouldn’t YOU follow it?
Every ten feet or so was another cluster of lovely, glowing, white mushrooms.
It went on and on until I had to pause in awe.
There before my very eyes was the Mother of all mushrooms.
It was big enough to wear as a hat.
It was a magical adventure. I am so lucky.
The FLOWER follows a poisonous path through the woods and survives to tell the tale.
There is devastation in Texas, Mexico, Florida and many of the Islands below Florida.
Once all the power and water are back on, there is a big souvenir pile left.
Debris. Non-biodegradable. Non-reusable. Trash.
Soggy sheet rock, insulation, plastics, moldy furniture, ruined appliances and cars…
Dig a hole? Throw it in it? Have you forgotten the water table below?
Nature experiences its own devastation.
Who cleans up?
Fungi.
They break down the dead trees and leaves and return the nutrients to the soil.
This isn’t the end of the story.
Things eat the mushrooms. They are food for the living, while living off of the dead.
That’s called a cycle. The circle of life.
Until we humans figure out we are all part of this same web,
we may end up in one of these holes we keep digging.
FLOWER
I took a walk down our road this evening.
I wanted to photograph two of our wildflowers.
The orange Jewel weed was being molested by a group of hummingbirds.
They were zipping through the patch, shaking the plants and making all kinds of racket.
Periodically one would sit and rest on the nearby Pokeberry weed.
I also wanted to get some pictures of hearts-a-bustin’.
I cut across my neighbors’ property on the way home.
I found even more fungi.
This snail is having this knocked-over-one for supper.
I gave it back after the photo.
‘Tis the season!
Snails love their ‘shrooms!
Wild FLOWER
When the ground is too soggy to dig in,
I put on my rubber shoes and go mushroom hunting.
I do not eat what I find.
I like my liver too much to risk eating a poisonous fungus.
This snail is enjoying a snack.
I only know common names of some of these. Please forgive my ignorance.
I have always been fascinated by fungi.
Maybe I should start another blog called fungialley.
I consider fungi both beautiful and beneficial.
I took all these photos this past weekend in my yard and in the woods behind my house.
I did go out in a kayak and found some floating fungi. That will be another post.
If a reader knows the true identifications of any of these, please send me a message.
FLOWER loves fungi.
floweralley 