Mushroom Hunting

It all started because I wanted to go for a hike. We drove to a local "park" and as we were driving we saw a few people outside the park boundaries with wicker baskets...hmmm, are they going on a picnic? No, they're mushroom hunting...very interesting. We keep driving, enter the park, park the car and start our hike, where we quickly find mushrooms of all shapes, sizes and colors. About 30 minutes into our nature walk/hike Brad can't stand it anymore, he has to talk to someone about the mushrooms. He finds another couple and proceeds to talk to them for probably an hour or so, following them around as they find mushrooms and they tell him tidbits of information. Meanwhile I continue wandering on the path, trying to keep an eye on him while taking pictures of all sorts of interesting mushrooms. Lo and behold! I found a mushroom that is safe to eat before I even knew it was a safe one. So after Brad's educational interview with these people I show him my picture and he promptly asks where I took that picture...hmmm, think really hard, in the last 20 pictures you just took, where was this particular one, retrace all steps...ah-ha! I think I remember! We found my mushroom and harvested it. Brad actually found a lot of mushrooms and we dug some of them up, some of them were already past their prime, and some of them we just skipped over on the face that we had no where to put all these mushrooms and we still had to hike back to the car.


I don't particularly like mushrooms, but they were pretty tasty. I really enjoy looking at the poisonous ones, they're so much prettier than the edible ones! This one was my favorite, and the last one I saw on our hike:


The red ones remind me of Smurfs and Mario.


We encountered multiple varieties of mushrooms and since I don't know anything about mushrooms or what they're really called I made up my own names based on what they made me think of.


Overall is was a very fun and educational trip and I at least got my hike out of the deal and Brad has added yet another hobby to his long list of things to do for fun.

Lilies

My favorite flower is the Tiger Lily, but for the most part I love all lilies! The apartment where Brad was staying had these gorgeous Calla Lilies right out the front door and I just loved them so much I had to take some pictures. So here they are for you enjoyement.

Eclipse!

NO, not the book, the literal happening of an eclipse. If you missed the one that happened on December 20th, then you're in luck because Brad got some pretty amazing shots of this pretty spectacular phenomenon! He is just so handy and talented when it comes to taking pictures! I feel so blessed to have him in my life that I get to benefit from his talents!




It truly was an amazing experience! I'm glad I stayed up to witness it first hand. We thought the cloud cover was going to be too dense to see the eclipse but we kept getting little clearings in the fog and clouds and were able to get these amazing shots!