Nature, The Future, Uncategorized

Mushroom Surprise

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It rained here last  week, a welcome respite to our drought.  Rain here is usually delivered in short bursts of showers that pop up briefly, followed by sunny skies. Last week, though, we had a whole day of light rain, fog, and mist that seemed to heal the earth and encouraged the unusual proliferation of mushrooms all over the place.

We rarely see mushrooms growing here. It is too dry. After the rain I noticed a proliferation of mushrooms in our front yard all around a dead tree stump.

I think they look like something you would see on a coral reef.  Their appearance gave me hope for us, that the drought will end and that the Earth still has lovely surprises for us.

What are you noticing in your yard these days? What surprises do you hope lurk there, hidden?

 

47 thoughts on “Mushroom Surprise”

  1. This year the surprise was that the neighborhood rabbits didn’t eat the daisies and cone flowers. Prior years those fuzzy marauders would come through and nibble off the blooms just as they were opening and getting big. This summer we have had blooms (and still do) in abundance and it makes me happy.

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  2. Morning all. Update from St Joseph. Sun is coming up there are plenty of people already here parked and waiting with me. I parked near some tents so I’m thinking there will be activities as soon as the sun is all the way up.

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  3. Rise and Shine Baboons!

    The yard is lush and green, sprinkled with mushrooms. This is more a “June” looking yard rather than an August appearance. My veggies are producing well–the beets, tomatoes, peppers, and kohlrabi have really prodigious. Mushrooms are popping up in many places. A neighbor several blocks away has an impressive set of them, the largest mushroom appears to have a 6″ cap.

    Raptors have been lurking so the dreaded rabbit population has diminished. Farmer MacGregor is pleased that Peter Rabbit has missing…

    Time for a new set of garden pictures?

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        2. Been there, tried that.

          Course, a new house was built and the area re-graded to a point. Plus, metal can, 80 years ago…? And all based on rumors in the first place.
          But nope, haven’t had luck finding anything.

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  6. The tangle of gone-to-seed arugula, intertwined with five different kinds of kale, basil and other herbs, and two tomato plants, now also offers a grand display of blue morning glories. I know I should rip them out, but they are cunning enough to put on the full show in the morning sun when I’m most likely to have the energy to tackle the task. So what the heck, I’ll just sit back and enjoy.

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        1. Call a local metal detector’s club and tell them you believe your uncles buried a canful of money somewhere in the backyard back in the ’30s.

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  8. I was about to say that “Alas, I no longer have a lawn.” But that would be hypocrisy. I am thrilled to be free of a lawn.

    OT: I just learned that the odds of my moving to Saint Paul are ratcheting up daily. I’m afraid that I am, in the phraseology of the Chinese curse, “living in interesting times.” 😐

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  9. We get an annual crop of huge, ugly yellow-brown-orange mushrooms in our front yard every year. Their number seems to be dramatically up this year. I don’t mind the cute little white mushrooms we get in our backyard and a few in front, but the Y-B-Os are disgusting to even look at. Even if someone tells me they taste better than morels times two, I would not be able to eat one.

    Chris in Owatonna

    PS- anyone who comes to Austin MN on Saturday, Aug. 26 can hear me present at the Austin ArtWorks Festival. 11:00 am at Sweet Reads Books. I’ll be discussing writing and my novel, Castle Danger (of course). The store is directly across Main Street from the new SPAM Museum! Which is free and a hoot to walk through as well as being very informative. Plus you can buy all the specialty flavors of SPAM in their gift shop.

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      1. I’ll try to remember to post a report on the Festival. My first time. Sounds like they’re hitting their stride … and NOT because they signed me on as a presenter! 😉

        C in O

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      1. Hi Tim,

        The prequel to Castle Danger, titled Straight River, will come out this year come hell, heck, high water (sorry Houston), or anything short of me either dying or losing my mind.

        As I write this, I’m working on the sequel to Castle Danger. I have to say I’m quite excited about it considering I’m still in the outlining stage. Maybe because I’m doing thorough outlining before I start writing. I want to reduce my usual 5 or 6 drafts down to 2 or 3 and get the third book written much faster than 3 or 4 years from start to finish.

        I’ll be sure to keep the TBers posted when release day for Straight River approaches. RIght now, I don’t see it coming out before mid-late October. November is more realistic.

        Thanks for asking. 🙂

        Chris in Owatonna

        PS- I presented at the Austin ArtWorks Festival on Saturday and it’s a fantastic event. Probably 100+ artists of all sorts, including seven authors. Lots of free entertainment (music) and every sort of visual art genre you can think of. Well run, all happens in downtown Austin, near the SPAM musuem and the cool, funky Sweet Reads Books (my new favorite bookstore- the owner is super supportive of local authors and I’ve sold more than 30 books through her store! (Needless to say, she loved Castle Danger. 🙂 )

        Check it out next year, everyone. Always held the last full weekend in August.

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  10. Nothing interesting or mysterious here. The best things is some fall raspberries, yum. The boulevard garden is looking good: the coneflowers are blooming and the nasturtiums are lush and pretty. But that’s not in my yard.

    Will try to shoot some pix and send them to you, Renee.

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    1. But I should wait until the rain is over. I found out recently that taking pictures when there is a raindrop on your camera lens makes for a challenging editing of the photo later. (I spent quite a bit of time on that yesterday.)

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    1. Watched the eclipse on NASA’s website…it has been overcast all day up here. But did notice it getting darker…and then lighter again. (Or was that just the clouds thickening?)

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    2. It was mostly clear with a few light clouds until just about peak totality, then the clouds rolled in.
      I was out on the dock with the lens of my welding helmet. A large crowd of students and staff in front of the college, other groups in other areas and all seemed to be very interested.
      And all had some sort of glasses or shield to watch with. …as opposed to some people in Washington who looked with bare eyes…

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      1. Same here. The clouds thickened just before 1:00. The peak of Owatonna’s eclipse was due around 1:15. Had one break in the clouds about that time and could see that it was about 85% as indicated by the experts. Definitely got darker, but birds didn’t go silent, nor did crickets or frogs. Still, a historic event no matter where you are in the US.

        Chris in O-town

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  12. Sometime in the early nineties I planted a “Queen of the Prairie” in a garden on the north side of my house. Shortly thereafter I began neglecting my gardens and the Queen — which had never thrived there — disappeared. This summer I noticed it was there again. Acknowledging that it was in a bad place I transplanted it to a new garden that had been enriched by a thick layer of compost last fall. It survived my crude digging up and replanting and sunburned leaves to send out some new shoots next to it. This morning I discovered it has sent out two more new shoots in another direction. Not only that I recently was surprised to discover there was a strong, healthy clump in the old garden as well. Delighted as well as surprised.

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  13. I just noticed this is that some transplanted great blue lobelia have survived and are blooming on the north side, and out front there’s a late blooming rudbeckia I’d forgotten about. Several cannas the we planted didn’t come up, but there’s one lurking behind a green pepper. And there’s a pretty and pink transplant, blooms under the leaves – I’ll get back to you when I learn what it is.

    And of course there are still zukes and cukes to keep track of, but now also carrots and potatoes.

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  14. i moved into this house on june 1 and the idea ofd starting a garden on june 1 for next year knowing we will be gone the following year makes me a fan of the people who planted the perrenials before us. we get to admire the hosta lillies and sedum that were left behind. we have some poutstanding shaggy pine shrubs i am not familiar with. we have 1 majestic oak and a whole bunch of places for the dogs to chase squirrels and chipmunks to. there are endless explosive launches out the door to cathc the plentiful cache of vermin and rodnet that taunts and ridicules my wonderful ready guard dogs. my trip up north this weekend was great. i visited wioth some old neighbors who i didnt realize were mushroom hunters in a serious way. they had an outing as i arrived that brought in a bunch of blue bonet’ that they say are delicious and have the cool attribute that if you snap the cap or stem off the flesh turns indigo blue by the count of ten. they also had other very cool mushrooms they found.
    i love mushroom knowledge and have no trouble eating ugly ones. the neighbor down the street had 6 dinner plate sized mushrooms pop up out in his yard today. wowser.

    thanks again to renee this month and sherrilee last month for padding the sparse contributing editor population with enough blog fodder to keep us interesting.

    dale used to search the news wires for timely related topics to have a vast array of voices come and speak about.

    we now in spite of the news are able to go around and around with the voices of the trial and it is wonderful

    screw you 45 were not going there.

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  15. Surprise mushroom find last summer: pig ears. Ugly little brown curlies found under balsam trees…and delicious. Revisited and eaten this year.

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