'Shrooms and punkins-it's fall!

We have had lots of rain and cooler weather-perfect for all kinds of fungi to pop up in the lawn. I tried looking this one up-it may be a type of Amanita. If anyone knows for sure, please let me know. It was about 7 inches long. I found it tipped over on its side.

Above is another mushroom type.

Above-this is a stinkhorn fungus. It's quite creepy-just in time for Halloween. It's also called dead man's finger. I guess it stinks, but I didn't try to find out. We have had to cut trees, so the fungus has dead matter to feed on.

I like all of these fellows around. I think they are very interesting and fun to look at.

In researching what some of these are called, I came across many stories of people being made deathly sick because they ate mushrooms they found. Don't do that! Even experts have been fooled by certain species. I would only eat puffballs, and only then after cutting them and making sure no gills were hidden inside-in case it wasn't truly a puffball. I'm just not very schooled on this subject. I have heard too many stories of people getting sick-it's not worth it.

(And some are deadly)

One of our ornamental grasses turns beautiful colors in the fall...

My garden is full of verbena. The kale will be great after the first frost.

I have bushel gourds and winter squash hidden under those big leaves. The frost will show them all.

 Have a lovely fall...

This girl goes to Washington...

I had an adventure. I went to visit my son, who lives near Washington, D.C. This 66 year old woman ventured beyond the dirt road. I had no idea how profoundly it would affect me-something got into my thoughts and being that I desperately needed. I was able to leave the 'me' that I knew behind, back on that farmland and old house and tree-full beauty-ness; I saw some things inside me that I hadn't been able to see before. It had been very many years since I had ventured much beyond those trees and hills...

The beautiful sameness of my home had also created a stuck person. I saw spiritual things that needed changing. And just everyday things that needed changing.

I hope to put the 'seeing' into 'doing.'

One of the things my son and I did was to tour the city-on foot. It's big. My feet told me so. We went to the Smithsonian American Art Museum. I saw an original Grandma Moses painting, Edward Hopper, Audubon...It was overwhelming. I got inches from some of the paintings so I could look at the brushstrokes.

I saw the back of the White House-from a distance. The Washington Monument. The Capitol-from a distance. I saw LOTS of people.

I was on highways that were a bit scary and on the Metro-went under the Potomac River! The Metro was quite an experience, to say the least.

While we were in the city, I saw homeless men, sleeping on steps or benches. We were within walking distance of fabulous paintings worth millions of dollars, and yet these men had all their belongings in plastic bags. Who decides what is worthy, and what isn't?  We do, and shame on us...

 

Be nice.

I don't know why I'm blogging so much~but I have something a little bit on my mind, so I thought I'd put in pretty pictures from last fall, and also tell what I'm thinking.

There does seem to be a noticeable division between people now in the US that wasn't there before. For instance, if you believe a certain way-you are labeled "the right" or "the left" by the news media, and this kind of labeling finds its way into 'our-speak' when we think about or talk about people. I'm not saying it very well, but I don't like being thrown into a side. I have beliefs that both 'sides' would call their own-so how can that be truly one side? And doesn't that kind of talk make us even more divided?

To distill a person into their basic beliefs is to throw away the whole person. We are so much more. I resent Fox news always saying "The left." I don't support Trump at all, and I honestly don't support Biden much except he's nicer than Trump.

See-isn't that stupid?

I think so much of what we believe about politics now depends on which news we watch.

Call me apolitical, and you'd be correct. Ignorant too, possibly.

My main gripe is that I hate seeing the meanness and the division in this country. I hate the anger.

I propbably shouldn't publish this, but I'm going to anyway. 

Can't we just be nice? Where has that quality gone?

 

Saturday hello...

I did tidy up my garden a bit yesterday. We've had lots of rain, and the weeds were taking over.

Lots of stuff to eat from this patch. 

And look what a lovely surprise I found! Three monarch butterfly larvae on the fennel! They're all on the same plant, even though I have lots of fennel in the garden. I have milkweed too, but I've never found these creatures on any of my milkweed-only on the fennel.

These two have a slug pal. Yum! Fennel is good!!!

Above is my hazelnut bush making his nuts. I gathered nuts last year, but they were small and hard. I like how unusual the nut casings are. It's a beautiful bush. I found some seedling bushes this spring from nuts squirrels had buried, so I planted the seeding trees. They are 3 feet tall now.

Aren't these just so beautiful?

Papyrus plants...

Above are my beans. I have 4 different green beans in rows about 10 feet long. I have harvested well over two bushels of beans from these plants. One variety is the yard long purple bean. They are completely odd and I'm not sure I like them at all.

My winter squash.

Sam, soaking in her pool this morning. The chair is our 'holding chair.' She sits and lays on my lap and goes to sleep while I hold her. I tell you it is wonderful to have a goose love you so much that she will sleep on your lap. That chair is a comfort to Sam when I'm not with her. She will stay by it most of the day.

Our yard.

God bless you all. Please stay safe from the storms.