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?

 

Thanks for pointing out to us all those mushrooms! What an amazing variety.

WONDERFUL!! Thank you so much for sharing these! I love them!!

i always love your ‘shroom pics, lynne!  the orange ones are truly startling.  and amazing how toxic the purple look.

Beautiful picture of the ragged robin, the last photo - do you call it that over there?

Mary, I was so excited to see so many different kinds! Every time I turned around I saw another one.

Jess, Thanks, glad you enjoyed.

Letty, and I love doing them. Yes, the orange ones are downright lurid! They challenged the light meter in the camera so glow-in-the-dark-like were they! Ragged robin? I think it’s some kind of wild thistle but I’ve never heard the name ragged robin. I like it though!

Wow, the orange and the purple look so unreal!  I would have never expected mushrooms to have so many colors!!

Letty, after looking lup “Ragged Robins”  I see that they are something else altogether. So, sorry, not raggedy robins.

Jan, aren’t they amazing?

YES.

I had the orange ones growing in my yard!  This is the first time I’ve ever seen them:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3322/3663696490_d9f17fff44_m.jpg

I also have the coral mushrooms, and the ones that look like sesame seed buns.  Someone warned me that they may be a member of the amanita family, and I’ve noticed that the squirrels do leave them alone.  I’ve never seen a purple mushroom.  I’ve also had many Ghost plants (indian pipes) growing this year, and it’s been many years since I’ve seen them in my yard.

Linda, yes the spotted top ones (mildew spots) are in the amanita family and nothing will eat them! Most in that family are poisonous.  You don’t want your dog eating them (if you have one!)
The Indian pipes are all over the place this year where I’ve never seen them before. They like the wet and damp so they are right at home this year!

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