Yesterday was a lovely, sunny day. We spent most of the afternoon in and around the pool soaking in the golden rays. These kinds of days have been pretty far and few between this year so we have to take advantage of them as they come along. It was nice having Rick back home again too.

Late in the afternoon we decided to take the canoe down to Green Turtle Pond and paddle to the area where I had seen so many mushrooms earlier in the week. The lake was full of people enjoying the day. Some were swimming, some were floating, some were paddling around in kayaks. As we were unloading the canoe one man said “Nice stripper!” I assumed he was referring to the canoe and not me.

We paddled over to the little lagoon and beached the canoe.

We found a few mushrooms, but most of the ones I had seen were gone by now. Rick demonstrates how big this one was.

Another purple one, this time cupped enough to be store some water.

This one I thought was pretty.

Back in the canoe we tried paddling over to this turtle sunning himself on a rock, but he was too shy and plopped into the water before we got close enough to get a good shot of him.

A little further on we came to this flock of geese enjoying the pond too.

We got too close for comfort for them too, and they took flight.

That was yesterday. Today is a whole different story outside. Take a look.

Oh well. At least we had a good day yesterday!

I did take my long awaited walk in the woods the other day. I hadn’t been yet this summer and mostly because of the ticks. We’ve had mosquitoes too this year, which we haven’t had since we moved here. This year they’re bad! So, I sprayed myself down with Deep Woods OFF! and off I went. I contemplated taking one of the dogs with me but I knew in my heart they would not appreciate all the stopping I was hopefully going to do when I saw something to take a photo of.

A leaf decoupaged onto another from the heavy rain the other day.

The woods are lusher than normal this year with all the rain we’ve had. It was even hard to find the beginning of the trail it’s so overgrown. No thorns reached out to clutch at my clothing as I entered the forest as they have done in previous times. I can’t describe it, but the woods have a different feel to them. Almost more secretive.

The trail was boggy and wet and I came across many pools of standing water. At this point I was glad I decided not to bring a dog!

Of course, all this wetness means that it’s just the right kind of conditions for mushrooms to thrive. I found they came in all colors.

Bright orange.

Yellow.

A combination of colors.

Purple. (!)

Some were huge. These were bigger than they look. My hand could not span the top of these.

Some were ugly.

Some grew on trees.

Some were brown but interesting all the same.

Some had me fooled. (do you know why?) Look closely.

While others didn’t look like mushrooms at all. This one looks like it’s trying to disguise itself by looking like the surrounding mulch.

And this one. Well, anybody for a cheese pizza?

Remember the coral mushroom I showed you the other day? Seems they come in different colors too. Yellow and this lovely peachy color.

I didn’t take just photos of mushrooms. A few blooming things along the way caught my eye.

I walked all the way down to the pond which had a lot of visitors for the middle of the day during the week. An elderly man that was fishing commented to me that it was a nice spot for taking photographs, and asked me what I was taking photos of. When I told him mostly mushrooms he cocked his head, raised one eyebrow and said “Kinda strange, don’t you think?” I told him I didn’t think it was strange at all. I’m sure most of the people I passed on my photographic journey walked right past all those mushrooms and didn’t even see them. Admit, it: aren’t you glad I pointed them out to you?

 

The other day I grabbed my camera and headed off to see what I could find in my yard and woods. We’ve had so much rain lately that I was hoping to find to find a few interesting things.

In the woods in back of my house I found a few fungusy-mushroomy things. Like this coral mushroom. I’m pretty sure it’s Jellied False Coral. My book says it’s edible, but I think I’ll pass. Can you see why it’s called a coral mushroom?

And these that were growing on a log. I can’t identify the species but I think they are pretty.

I came across this group of Indian Pipe Plants. To me they seem to be members of a dance troupe working out a piece of very complex choreography, albeit a somewhat ghostly one.

Next I focused my attention on what flowers are blooming in the beds. I came across this spider napping. See how he’s holding on to the leaf with his leg?

Bee balm up close and personal.

I don’t know what these flowers are. Maybe bellflowers? It’s the same type of flower that the spider is napping on, just that this one is fully opened.

And this little beauty growing wild in the front yard. It resembles the Pipsissewa  (or Prince’s Pine) that we have in Colorado only this one is white.

And lastly, this strange bug that has been camped out on the same bee balm flower for about three days now. Even after the rain the other night he reappeared. It’s amazing what you see when you are using a macro lens!

He seemed to be studying me and trying to figure out what that big black thing is that is staring him in the face. Should he eat it? Maybe not ...

All this and I never had to leave the confines of my own property. Pretty amazing isn’t it? I plan to take a walk down to the pond, maybe this morning, and see what I can find in the “real” woods.

Edited to add: I think the Pipsissewa is also known as Swamp Pyrola and perhaps not Prince’s Pine.

We have a miniature garden happening on our deck. I tried planting tomatoes out in one of the beds in the yard but I found that the squirrels would pick the green fruit, take one bite, then discard it. It was very frustrating to watch the tomatoes coming along and then all of a sudden be ruined by rodents. So now we just have them in pots on the deck and it seems to work fairly well. This year it’s been a little too wet for them, but they are not doing too badly.

The other morning after it had rained overnight I took these photos. Some were taken with the Lens Baby. I particularly liked the way the drops of water clung to their skins.

We also have our herb garden planted in an old wash tub. We are used to using our sage, oregano, rosemary, and thyme whenever we are cooking with fresh herbs. It’s great to just step out the back door to get a quick snip of whatever we need. I was amazed that the thyme came back this year! Everything else did not winter and we planted new this spring. We have a pot of basil too but since it grows so large it is in a pot of its own.

We have grape tomatoes too.

This little guy is on a branch that broke off from the main plant. I figured what the heck? and plunked it down in a pot with the tarragon plant (which is struggling because Bella pulled it up and carried it around the yard early on) and lo and behold the silly thing is still alive! That just goes to show you how wet it’s been that it could take root with no help from me! It’s even putting out new leaves!

Our bay “tree” was struggling with some kind of sticky bugs when we had it in our sun room. I was about to give up on it and throw it out, which would have been a shame since we’ve had it for so long. (It made the trip from Colorado with us and we had it a few years before we moved.) Rick decided to put it outside and it is now thriving. In fact, it’s gotten so big I am going to have to put it in a tree-sized pot.

I think it actually likes being wet. And here all this time I was thinking bay trees liked it warm and dry!

P.S. All perfect water drops were supplied by Mother Nature.

Edited on 7/25 to add that we ate the nice ripe tomato at the top of the entry last night and it was dee-licious!

I don’t know why I’m sitting here trying to blog today. I am kind of in a funk and not really sure why. I have no reason to be. I feel like summer is passing me by and soon it will be gone and I won’t have done any of the things I intended to do. I had a goal of keeping my flower beds weed free and it all started out so well. Then the rains came and so did the weeds. I battled them for a while but now I just looked at them this weekend and said go ahead, clog my flower bed, see if I care! I’ve given up. Plus, I think that in my zeal to weed early on I must have pulled out my coneflowers since not one do I have now. Bummer.

It is still not really summer here. More like an extended spring. The pool temperature I think has topped out at 78 degrees on a good day. Yesterday three-quarters of an inch of cool rain fell over much of the day and I’m sure the pool temp will fall by a few degrees too. It’s just sad. I do like the cool nights for pleasant sleeping but I really could use a little more heat. I think we may have broken 80 degrees once or twice. My day lilies did not bloom as vigorously as years past and we’ve not had the dragonflies we normally do. They usually love the lilies. Neither have I seen my little buddies the hummingbird moths, and only a few butterflies so far. We still have a few hanger-on fireflies, still looking for love (most likely in all the wrong places), winking high in the treetops. And the cicadas? I am really not sure they will make an appearance this year. I’m afraid it may be too cool for them. I associate the sound of cicadas with hot weather and it’s not looking good!

There are so many things to blog about that I have just let pass me by.

Like the day we had two trees removed from our front side yard. It was fascinating to watch how quickly and easily the tree removal crew took them down. And how their super-charged shredding machine chewed up huge branches and limbs into mulch in a matter of seconds. We kept the wood from the trunks of the trees and will season it for use in a year or so. One tree was a black birch and when they cut it the smell of root beer, or to be more exact—birch beer—permeated the air for hours afterwards. I can still press my nose to the pieces of wood and smell that wonderful odor.

Like the two tea towels I finished.

Like the rest of the photos from our trip to San Miguel.

Like the somewhat upscale dinner we gave for a few friends of ours on Saturday night.

Like the great walk we took through the old Jungle Habitat with the dogs on Sunday. (Jungle Habitat is a story within itself! Another abandoned New Jersey attraction.)

All likely topics to blog about, but yet, I didn’t. Or haven’t. I need to get on with it here!

Watch this space ...

Edited on Wednesday afternoon to add:
Okay, so I lied. But not on purpose.
I went out to take some photos around noon today and these three things were different than my post above.
It was steamy and very warm. My camera lens even fogged up!
I heard a cicada!
I found one coneflower blooming and several others about to!
So, there you have the latest.
I’m thrilled about all three things above.
Well…maybe not so much the foggy camera lens ...