We always enjoy finding a beautiful fungus when we hike….yes, I said beautiful. They come in such interesting shapes and colors. There is no denying that thebracket fungus above is beautiful in its design.
Now identifying fungus with a specific name is not always easy for me so when I do learn a name it usually sticks. This fungus is called Witches’ Butter.
This one was truly unusual and I don’t think we have seen it before on our hikes. It only lasted a few days and I am really glad we stopped to take some photos so we can remember the way it grows.
Here it is on another stump. At the bottom of the image you can see that something has knocked part of it off the stump and you can take a good look at the gills.
This one was just an interesting shape….don’t have any idea what it is exactly but I can still appreciate the way it is part of the habitat and that it is just fun to look at as we stopped to observe it along our trail.
Here is a link to another fungus entry I wrote last year: The Joy of Fungus. In this entry I share some of notebook pages and a couple of interesting links for you to check out.
Also, you can check out two of the Outdoor Hour Challenges featuring mushrooms in the Handbook of Nature Study:
Our Plum Tree – Leaves are coming on fast this week with the little sunshine we experienced. Plum jelly in the making.
I have started reading An Oregon Cottage and she has a great gardening/home blog that hosts a Tuesday Garden Party meme.I thought this week I would join up and share with all of you what is going on in my garden right now as spring starts to burst forth.
My garden is definitely not a winter garden. I don’t do much more than throw out a few lettuce and carrot seeds in the late fall and those have long been harvested. My boys planted snap peas this past autumn but some critter of the night came and munched them down to the ground. I accept that I live in a habitat that offers yummy treats to my fellow creatures so I took the peas in stride.
Our Walnut Tree – Perhaps the squirrels will leave us some this year. 🙂
I think the theme of this post is going to be the PROMISE of a summer garden and fall harvest since that is what I observed as I toured around yesterday.
Our garlic chives are starting to grow again…can’t wait.
The oregano is filling in and hints at the summer pizza and sauces to come…of course, I had to nip a few leaves just to smell as I walked around the boxes.
My son’s strawberry box is greening up nicely as well. We are going to be adding a new strawberry box as soon as we can get through mud to built it. (see the last photo for a photo of the location)
This should tell you how badly I need to tend to the garden after a long winter. These onions are popping up despite being mixed in with the mullein and the dusty miller. I know I am not going to get to this part of the garden for at least a couple of weeks….just being honest.
So as long as I’m being honest, here is what the state of most of our garden boxes at this very moment. Very sad and in need of a good weeding before we can even think about getting something new planted. The saddest part is that if I put my mind to it, I could have this tidied up in an afternoon.
Moving away from the vegetable garden and onto the flower boxes is a little bit more cheerful. The tulips are just beginning to give us a hint of their deep purple blooms to come. I love my little tulip patch and look forward to watercoloring the flowers once they start to really shine.
The chrysanthemums that I planted last year look like they made it through the winter nicely. I look forward to seeing their happy little faces in a few months. This box has coneflowers as well so this spot has flowers long into the autumn once it gets started. I decided a long time ago that I needed to include a couple of flower boxes along with the vegetables because it cheers me up to see the color when I look out the window. Food for the soul.
This wallflower has been a great plant in our garden for the last two years. I actually saw some bees buzzing in it too! Happy bees.
Here are some guys who came uninvited to my garden! My son spotted these whoppers in the back of the bed and of course I had to take a photo.
Now for the exciting part of the post!
See that fresh garden territory? I finally convinced my husband that this “lawn” was using up valuable garden space and very expensive water (rates just increased again!). We are trying out a few possible configurations to build some raised boxes with one center block bed to hold something artsy. Any ideas are welcome. It usually gets summer sun mid-morning to late afternoon so probably about six+ hours altogether.
So there ends my garden survey for this first week in the spring season. I am truly looking forward to the change of the season.
Jami’s Tuesday Garden Party meme is open from Tuesday to Thursday so there is still time for you to jump in and participate!
We had the opportunity to hike down at the river, sunny skies and warmer temperatures were just too good to pass up. The Kona dog went swimming and brought us a bunch of sticks to throw for her to fetch. She was one happy dog!
This sign is for rafters, not hikers. There are stretches of the river that flow through “private” areas and you are not supposed to be loud and rowdy there but then when you hit public lands you can have water fights and swim and holler as much as you want. There were no rafters on the river this time but in the summer there is raft after raft of water lovers floating down this section of the river.
Hiking still means climbing on things for my teenage boys. This time it was an old oak tree lying on its side. It is a sad sight to see one of these old oaks giving in to the elements. I know it is home to creatures and soon it will melt into the floor of the woods but it still makes me sad.
Down at the river the boys made Andy Goldworthy style rock piles again but in the end my rock sculpture was the best…..
What do you think? At least it didn’t fall over before I could take a photo….just friendly family competition/fun. It is not as easy at it looks to stack rocks, big and small, into something that looks nice.
Hiking back up from the river I spotted this little mushroom growing in the moss on the side of a tree.
Here is another one that we thought was interesting. My boys call me the Fungus Lady for a reason. 🙂
Seriously, our part of the world is not a winter wonderland but it can get cold. I decided that it is pleasantly warm enough afternoons that it makes our cold winter mornings bearable. I have never lived anywhere else and I just don’t know how I would cope with really long, snowy winters. We have days at a time where it is cold and we get a few inches of snow but it melts and the sun comes out and we see green. Our green season is really from about this time of the year until the end of May…..they our state turns “golden”. I like “golden”.
Shhhh…don’t tell anyone. Barb is admitting that she doesn’t care for winter as much as summer.
154 days until the first day of summer but I’m not counting.
I am going to have to postpone our winter snow study until we actually get some snow. We are working on our winter tree study though so stay tuned for that this week. We also took another fabulous hike to a different part of the river today…I know….we are spoiled but loving it.
NOTE: If the challenge is included an ebook, it is noted directly after the challenge. If you have an Ultimate Membership, you will be able to pull up the ebook and print any notebook pages, coloring pages, or other printables for your nature study.
The links above are Amazon affiliate links to resources I own and love.
We had a break in our rainy weather so that meant we seized the opportunity to get out and walk with the dog on the walking trail. Our surprise nature study subject of the day was “mushrooms”. They were in abundance on this trip down the trail.
After looking at all the photos when we got home, I decided the theme of the day was “texture”.
Must be something rotting underneath the debris….makes for a great photo.
Lots of things going on in this photo…reds and greens make a nice contrast to each other.
This is my favorite image of the day….wow! Look all those textures and colors and layers.
Someone or something had knocked a bunch of mushrooms loose along another section of the trail. Love the gills in this mushroom image.
Last one for today….mushrooms and brown grass make an interesting composition for this image.
We are enjoying our winter break and spending lots of time outdoors, both in the yard and out on walks. I haven’t had any nature study subjects in mind except to enjoy the pleasures that December has offered. I am sort of itching to get started on a more focused nature study plan again in January.
I am off to San Francisco today to spend the day looking at some great art….Post-Impressionists! Of course the museum is in Golden Gate Park so we will more than likely be taking a walk to see what we can find.
We started our cattail study last fall with this entry: Cattails in Autumn.
We had two locations to visit for this study….one within walking distance and another up on our regular walking trail on the other side of town.
Here are the cattails near our house.
Our cattails are starting to look a little ragged. The water that was there in the fall has now completely dried up. The stalks of the cattails are dry, stiff, and hard. The leaves are stiff as well.
Here is our cattail area that is along our walking trail. I think that someone came and cut a lot of the actual cattails. Even thought they are still growing in water, the leaves and stems are all brown and stiff.
There is still a little water in this area that flows down to a creek. We all noticed that the water was a little smelly this time of year….hmmmm. We enjoyed having a purpose to our walk today and it was nice to focus on something other than the cold air. 🙂
The other interesting thing that we noted on this walk was that there were lots of mushrooms growing. Here are three different kinds that we stopped and looked at.
There were lots of this kind pushing up through the leaves.
There were some that were really white.
Then we saw this cute little yellow mushroom.
We are off to another hike today but this time down to the river. We will keep our eyes out for anything interesting.
We haven’t had much of a chance to study mushrooms up close in the last few weeks but we did over our summer break. Our trip to Oregon gave us plenty to look at and identify. Identifying mushrooms is really a difficult task.
As part of our biology course, we studied the mushroom’s life cycle and my boys made nature journal entries using some of the photos we had collected of mushrooms in our area.
“Fungi, as a whole, are a great boon to the world. Without them our forests would be choked out with dead wood. Decay is simply the process by which fungi and other organisms break down dead material, so that the major part of it returns to the air in gaseous form, and the remainder, now mostly humus, mingles with the soil.” Handbook of Nature Study, page 715
I think if that is the only thing we learn about fungus/mushrooms from our study we will have accomplished a greater understanding of how the forest ecosystem works. There is great beauty in these living things and a wonderful purpose to their creation.
Our mushroom season will soon be upon us and we will be out and enjoying a whole array of fungus to observe. We will be using the diagram on page 717 to categorize the mushrooms we see as we go along. I am totally inspired by Casey’s study: Extraordinary World: Mushrooms.
Here is a set of our mushroom photos from the last year that I gathered on Flickr if you would like to see what we have in our area of California: Mushrooms
Mushrooms! Fungus! Molds! Ask my children and they will tell you that I am fascinated with these things when we find them during our outdoor time. They even call me very affectionately the “Fungus Lady”.
I found this video during our last study of mushrooms and I would love for you to watch it in order to prepare you for your study of mushrooms. This video is very well done and will help your children understand how a mushroom grows.
You will need to click over to YouTube.com to view this video. Please note: Turn down the sound if the music is too much for you. As always, please preview the video on YouTube and I do not endorse any other video that may come up after this one. There are some questionable videos about mushrooms.
If you do not think you will observe any mushrooms during your Outdoor Time, you can still complete the Inside Preparation work as a way to be ready the next time you do see a mushroom.
Outdoor Hour Challenge
Autumn Series #9 Mushrooms
(See Also Challenge #41)
Inside Preparation Work
Mushrooms and Other Fungi-read the overview starting on page 714 and continuing to page 719. Page 719 shows the parts of a mushroom with labels.
Outdoor Hour Time The ideal study of ferns, mushrooms, and fungi would be to experience them outdoors in their natural habitat. Use your 15 to 20 minutes of outdoor time this week to enjoy a search for some kind of mushroom. Your particular area may not have these subjects readily at hand but let your friends, family, and neighbors know that you are studying mushrooms and with more pairs of eyes looking you may be able to find something to study up close.
Enjoy your time outdoors whether you can find this week’s subject or not. Remember to look at the sky and comment on the weather. Take time to notice your tree from your year long tree study. Collect a few items to take inside to sketch into your nature journal. Just because the topic of this challenge is mushrooms, you do not have to limit yourself to that narrow focus during your 15 to 20 minutes of outdoor time.
Follow-Up Activity
Spend a few minutes once inside to discuss your experiences from your nature walk.Are there questions that need to be answered or items that need to be identified? Make a note of any topics that come up that you can research further in the Handbook of Nature Study or at your local library.
Make an opportunity for a nature journal entry. The diagrams on pages 695 and 719 could be sketched into the nature journal. I have created a notebook page for you to use in your nature journal to record your mushroom observations and it is listed in the free downloads section of the sidebar of my blog.
“Since mushrooms are especially good subjects for watercolor and pencil studies, it would add much to the interest of the work if each pupil, or the school as a whole, should make a portfolio of sketches of all the species found. With each drawing there should be made on a supplementary sheet a spore print of the species.” Handbook of Nature Study, page 718
Spore prints are another idea for an activity following up the mushroom study. I would only do this activity with older students who truly understand that mushrooms can be poisonous.
Here are some instructions you can download: Mushroom Spore Prints or this blog entry.
You can use the provided notebook page to sketch a mushroom that you observed during your Outdoor Time or you can use it to copy the sketch from page 719 in the Handbook of Nature Study, labeling the different parts of a mushroom.
We have been on the lookout for mushrooms and ferns for the last few weeks in anticipation of this challenge. I am overwhelmed with how much I don’t know about mushrooms at this point but I am determined to document the mushrooms and other fungus that we see so that when I have a cold winter day and I want to spend some time with a field guide, I will be able to flip through the photos and hopefully come up with names for them.
I decided that there are so many photos that I would make a slideshow on Flickr.com to share with you. The fungi are from three different places but the majority are from my own yard or from a hike within three miles of my house. The others are from the Calaveras Big Trees State Park.
Mushroom Slideshow– Don’t miss viewing this page with all my fungus images
As we hiked yesterday, I noticed that the boys were catching sight of more and more varieties of mushrooms than ever before. They even spotted some that I didn’t see and directed me to go back to the spot and take a photo. 🙂
This particular hike they were having a good time in the cool fresh air together.
If you look carefully up over the trail where the boys are hiking, you will notice a tree that broke off and is just barely hanging in place. The boys thought they should try to throw rocks at it to see if they could get it to come down but my husband explained that he didn’t think that was a really great idea. I noticed that I was getting into quite a few sticker type seeds as we walked along.
We hiked back to the top and noticed that the moon was up over the oaks. What a great blue sky, don’t you think?
So I am still getting used to my new little camera but I think I will like it in the long run. It has a better zoom and the viewing screen is much bigger.
Here are the last of the photos for today.
Backside of a fern
Big ferns along the path.
Ferns along the side of a gully that will have a creek running in it once it rains again around here. 🙂
Here is my son’s mushroom diagram for his nature journal. We copied this out of the Handbook of Nature Study, page 719.
This was a great challenge for our family and we never dreamed we would find so many different kinds of mushrooms and other fungi to study.
I encourage you all to give the challenge a try either now or when your weather is cooperating.
This week you need to familiarize yourself with the section in the Handbook of Nature Study that discusses flowerless plants. Turn to the table of contents and in Part III, go to the list of flowerless plants and skim down the list of topics covered. The suggested readings for this challenge will be in the following categories: Ferns-read the overview on page 693 and then turn to page 695 to see the parts of a fern labeled. Pages 704 and 705 show photos of several kinds of ferns. Mushrooms and Other Fungi-read the overview starting on page 714 and continuing to page 719. Page 719 shows the parts of a mushroom with labels.
I found a video to watch to prepare you for your study of mushrooms. This video is very well done and will help your children understand how a mushroom grows.
The ideal study of ferns, mushrooms, and fungi would be to experience them outdoors in their natural habitat. Use your 15 to 20 minutes of outdoor time this week to enjoy a search for a fern or some kind of mushroom. Your particular area may not have these subjects readily at hand but let your friends, family, and neighbors know that you are studying ferns and mushrooms and with more pairs of eyes looking you may be able to find something to study up close. Enjoy your time outdoors whether you can find this week’s subject or not. Remember to look at the sky and comment on the weather. Take time to notice your tree from your year long tree study. Collect a few items to take inside to sketch into your nature journal. Just because the topic of this challenge is flowerless plants, you do not have to limit yourself to that narrow focus during your 15 to 20 minutes of outdoor time.
Spend a few minutes once inside to discuss your experiences you had on your nature walk. Are there questions that need to be answered or items that need to be identified? Make a note of any topics that come up that you can research further in the Handbook of Nature Study or at your local library.
Make an opportunity for a nature journal entry. Start a list of flowerless plants in your nature journal. The diagrams on pages 695 and 719 could be sketched into the nature journal as well.
“Since mushrooms are especially good subjects for watercolor and pencil studies, it would add much to the interest of the work if each pupil, or the school as a whole, should make a portfolio of sketches of all the species found. With each drawing there should be made on a supplementary sheet a spore print of the species.”
