I love it when the sun is not quite over the horizon yet, and it’s spotlighting the tops of trees like this.
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I’ve been trying to post these for a few days with no success. This is from Wednesday morning. Started on Halloween.
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It’s always crazy seeing the snow elsewhere. Here the nights are 50s and the days go from 50s in the morning to 80s by noon. It’s 71°f where I am atm. Hiking in the woods around the mobile tensaw delta and river. Looking for mushrooms for dinner. Also just relaxing.
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It’s a bit of a surprise–I live in West Michigan, and we had snow, too (up to 10 inches on the shore of Lake Michigan! My sister, a teacher, had a snow day!. We only had about 3-4 inches, and it melted relatively quickly. My kids were bummed not to have had a snow day).
I’m glad you can enjoy the warmth! We are still raking leaves at our house, but most of them are down, now.
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Some species of Amanita. Very pretty. Similar enough, if not one, of the deadly Amanita species so I won’t even do a taste test though theoretically it should be safe to do so. But when it looks like one where a spoonful can kill you without an organ transplant, I never taste test. I basically just taste test boletes lol. But it’s very pretty. Everyone in this genus is.
Seems this species is Amanita polypyramis and is named because of the many pyramid like worts on the cap and bulb.
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We had 2+ inches Saturday night last week with a high last Sunday in the low 30s, down from the mid-80s a couple days before, but up to the mid-60s just the other day, a crazy sawtooth.
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I forget what I was doing, but a few days ago I came across one like that except the top was smooth, and it was nine inches across – biggest white mushroom I’ve ever encountered.
Yesterday I discovered a tow of tiny ones a pale orange in color in my yard. Before I even thought of grabbing my phone to get a picture Knox and my buddy’s dog Tripper had trampled them.
Some time back a guy told me that if I could get mushrooms like those growing out in the mulch I use in my conservation work it would speed decomposition of the mulch. Do you know if that’s true?
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From a newsclip–
That reminds me of one evening when our mom and dad ordered us into the car where they had sleeping bags waiting; they drove several hours till we got to a place where the Aurora could be seen. I think they haven’t been seen that far south more than three times since then.
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The aurora borealis are usually something seen north of about 70° latitude; seeing them as far south as 50° is rare.
– Gulf of Finland at about 62° N latitude.
It’s not obvious, but the brightest part isn’t around the north pole – it’s around the north magnetic pole, which has been wandering radically for a few decades; it’s presently closer to the pole than it has been for four hundred years. Since then it’s been practically marching north out of Canada and into the Arctic Circle, moving in a very straight line since ab out 1980. One result is that the aurora borealis won’t be as easy to see from North America because the aururae happen around the magnetic poles. But the space station will always have some awesome views–
Just to be fair, here’s some of the southern version:
That’s in 2010 and the magnetic field was being a little weird.
I have no idea what the gold streak is!
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Can mushrooms help decompose material and break it down? Yes that’s true. But mulch is meant to breakdown. It’s going to make very healthy soil most likely. May even have host relationships when the plants there.
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So I should get mushrooms going? I have no idea how to do that!
I already collect bugs that live in and munch on woody debris and mix them into my mulch, but those are easy; I come across them when doing yard work.
The mulch breaking down is actually going to be a concern next year; I placed it ten to sixteen inches thick, and when it decomposes the top will sink below the spots of sand & dirt where I planted trees.
I have no idea where the magnetic north pole is now, but when my kids were still in school I remember discovering that if you were at the geographical north pole, your magnetic compass would point straight to our town. 
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It really depends on what you are trying to do with it. I’ve never used mulch that deep. All much eventually breaks down if it’s natural. Often once it breaks down to fat it will be replaced and moved to a composting spot.
I was just stating that since most compost is replaced every year or two, fungi popping up in it as mushrooms won’t really change the period. I would not try to add anything to it. Unless you want to. Different tree species hosts different fungi. But if something just happened to pop up, it’s most likely not a big issue.
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I use to never eat these because of the potential for toxins resulting in a change of mental state, sickness or possibly even death. But now I’m going too. It’s edible, tastes good and is a dominating mushroom in fall and winter. They get fairly big too and with basic parboiling the toxins are broken down and the mushroom can be safely eaten.
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At least it’s pretty.
Let us know how the eating went.
I was biking a back road in August and came across one that looked like this one that was fourteen inches across (though it was a bit redder). I backtracked and just stood there looking at it for a while, it was so impressive.
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Many of the Amanitas get pretty big. Almost all of them are toxic. Some have toxins that are psychoactive and some have so many toxins that one bite can kill you. Several have water soluble toxins and can be paraboiled and then eaten.
The white one I shared up above, the pyramid one, is of the same genus and is one that is suspected of being deadly even if boiled.
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Well. This is good news for me. I showed how I love along a river. The river goes along the entire backside and part of the one side of my property. I spent over 10 years cutting down all the invasive plants, getting rid of majority of the ones causing bank destabilization. Hurricane Sally messed it up a lot. Rebuilt the bank, spent around $2k on native saplings, bushes, ferns and so on. Brought in some larger stones to help create berms to stop washout. Then about 2 years ago, the people on the other side of the bank started taking pics of them doing work. They used an easement agreement thing from around 35 years ago, before I was even born, with the previous owners allowing them access to the bank on my side side it’s way more level. Way better cared for even then. So that they could use that side of the creek to hang out and fish and so on. Anyways, they used that and claimed they have been maintaining the property and wanted to move the property line over another 40 feet so that they owned the land on both sides of the creek. They own land on one side of me too. But the land was separated into two different towns. They wanted to claim the side and connect it to change which school their kids went to. Anyways, they begin to cut down a lot of stuff on my side, and I told them I owned the property. They showed how they were going through court to get that portion and have a right to keep maintaining it. We went back and forth and used lawyers. Finally, realized the best approach was to prove I’ve been maintaining it by me stop maintaining it. It quickly went back into overgrowth. Became non useable. I have been taken pics every week for last 80 weeks or so. The lawyer filed it all and it looks like the judge is siding with me. So then I got my lawyer to send a letter with the intent to sue them for damages since the invasive species wiped out all my work. I then got three landscapers to bid it with the cost to do it instead of the cost of me doing it myself. It turned into a roughly $19k lawsuit. They got the letter about two weeks ago. We’re tripping out. Came over and I told them I’m not interested in talking and called the cops on them.
Then had my lawyer call them saying this is how we can handle it. Told them if they stop pretending and sign the paperwork to stop trying to steal my 40x340 bit of land along the bank of this side of the bank I’ll drop the lawsuit ( which I may not have won anyways ) and they agreed. They also realize it’s a lot of time and money to manage that area. They may have lost anyways, it was 50/50. Or more like 70/30 they would lose. But I wanted to make it 100/0. So now it’s all back mine and I told them they can’t use it anymore either. Maybe down the road, but for now it’s better they stay off it and signed on that too.
Went out there at 5am and begin working on it until now. So just 4 hours of cutting down weeds. Mostly overgrown spiny greenbrier and dewberry vines. Would have done more but I still have to work my 12 hour shift at work in 90 mins.
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Out in the woods this morning, between rounding at an assisted care and working on messages–strikingly red berries in the swamp, a sun break through pines, and a lone, bug-eaten, red apple hanging in a tree on reverted farm land. The world seems to be waiting for snow, but I’m glad it’s still a bit warm
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