long time gone

oh blog friends ... i've missed you so.

august rushed by in a flash.

and here it is mid-september.

i've been communing with nature these past weeks:

lying on my belly in fields of fading flowers;

crouching low to inspect mushrooms;

gazing up at the sky through a filagree of branches and stems.

 

so long, summer.

welcome home,  fall.

i've been waiting for you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

sandy neck shrooms : 53 project week 39

Walking in the dunes on Sandy Neck

after the nor'easter

and found these mushrooms & fungi

emerging from the rainsoaked sand

braving the cold winds.

 

This last one is called an Earthstar, 

or Astraeus hygrometricus

and, like us, has a heart at its center.

there's a fungus among us

With all the rain and muggy weather this spring and summer, it's gearing up to be a banner year for mushrooms and assorted fungi (or is it funguses?). The last year I remember it being so mushroom-crazy is about 10 years ago, when Nick and Hannah were little and we lived in Middleboro. I remember walking in the woods behind our house with the kids and Grandma, and counting dozens of different varieties in all colors, shapes, sizes, some of them rather...um...interesting. Imagine the glee of two kids describing what each one looked like, and their funny Grandma egging them on all the way.


This year we have an explosion of Indian Pipe, or Ghost Plant around our house. We're in a very shady spot surrounded by woods, and the white plants are emerging from the leaf bed. This morning I counted over 60 little clusters of pipes in just a small area, with more ready to emerge any day.

More photos here.