Sweet hubby Rick’s birthday is tomorrow: August 31st. For his birthday he received a wonderful birthday gift (not from me) that was delivered by its builder/giver just the other evening. Can anyone guess what it is by these photos?  The only thing I will tell you is that it was built completely by hand. All will be revealed over the weekend. If you guess correctly I might have to think up a prize for the winner (first person with the right answer).

Yesterday I was cited for one of the “best of the Jersey blogs.” How exciting is that? I didn’t even know this site existed until a comment from a reader led me there. Thanks to Hilary for letting me know. Her blog was also one of the “best.”

Take a look! Click here to see my blog in print!

I think someone is confused about the seasons. There seems to be a battle going on here in New Jersey between Summer and Fall. Last week we had grey skies every day and temps in the low 60s and high 50s during the day. The temperature in our pool went from 82F to 70F. BRRR. I didn’t even open the windows in the house because it was too chilly. In August. My Mom would have been visiting through all this unseasonal weather and she would have hated it. Mom never liked a cloudy or rainy day; said they were depressing.

A few leaves have started to change and the trees are losing that lush greenness of summer’s bounty. They are looking pallid.

Now take yesterday. The temp was up to 90F and the humidity at about 100% which made a heat index of 106F. Talk about a seasonal swing—it was more like a seasonal sling. We took a ride to Pennsylvania to meet Andy and his wife at their lakeside cabin (he owns the company Rick works for and you’ll be hearing more about the cabin). I took these pics along the way.

We passed this adorable Dutch/American bakery and I couldn’t resist taking a photo of the quaint—and very Dutch—building.

What’s that you say? My photo is blurry? You can’t see the image? Yeah, I know. I didn’t realize that the lens had fogged up due to the high humidity! It was so ridiculous that I had to include them here for your merriment as well.

We stopped at a delightful farm stand to buy their “freshly picked every day” sweet corn and I took a few more pics. This time with the camera adjusted to the outside air. Look at the haze in the second photo!

Our grass badly needs mowing but it’s been so wet this week the grass hasn’t dried out enough to mow. Last night after we got back from our outing Rick and I worked together to at least get the back yard done. Good thing we did because overnight we had thunderstorms and rain. Now it’s soaking wet again, so my plans for today of mowing and jumping in the pool need to be slightly adjusted. Right now it’s 8:30 a.m. and 73F outside with 98% humidity. Oh yeah. Lovely. I think a dip in the pool is definitely in order today, The grass, however, I think will have to wait ...

I found it in the yard, completely intact. I thought it was a cicada but wasn’t completely certain until I looked it up. Isn’t it beautiful with its camouflaged body and gorgeous wings?

I know most people don’t even notice mushrooms in their yard or when walking in the forest, but both Rick and I are fungi lovers. Our cabin walks back in Colorado were always enhanced by finding new species to identify.

Since moving to NJ, we are fungally challenged. We are not familiar with Eastern shrooms at all. So far this year our mushrooms have been keeping a very low profile with not much rainfall. However, over the past two weeks we’ve had rain mixed with high humidity allowing the mycelium (ground molds) to grow and push forth from the ground in all kinds of mushrooms.

Over the past week my morning coffee walk around the yard has yielded great rewards. Mushrooms are fleeting. You have to catch them as soon as they pop up out of the ground because soon they will have “blossomed” and are gone. Or the squirrels eat them. It’s fun to see which ones get nibbled on and which ones are left alone for the slugs. I took some photos of a few when they first appeared and then what they looked like within about 8 hours or so. A few we have identified, but some we aren’t sure yet what they are. I know I will bore some of you with these photos, but I do want them archived in my blog so I’ll remember them next year.

I think this one is an amanita citrina (poisonous) I took before and after shots:

I don’t know what these yellow ones are, but they have a whole little family in the front side yard. They’ve popped up all over. I think they’re pretty. The squirrels don’t eat them.

These are Frost’s Boletes. They have pores instead of gills. Nothing ate them but the slugs ... very porous and icky.

Another pored mushroom. (not identified)

We have a great number of these ugly looking mushrooms. I don’t know what they are. Again, a before and after shot.

A gem-studded puffball:

We’ve had quite a few of these very large mushrooms growing in the leaf mold. (unidentified)

And least, but certainly not least—especially in sheer numbers—the squirrel’s favorite: a russula. These mushrooms come in a variety of colors. I didn’t take the time to figure out exactly which kind of russula this is.

I just wish the elegant stinkhorns would come up again! They were so strange. Nothing could be more un-elegant. Click here to see them last year.

That’s it for mushroom show-and-tell this time. Hopefully we’ll have a few more interesting ones pop up over the next month. We are certainly getting the rain and humidity necessary for them to thrive. At least something thrives in this humidity!