Phew, gotta really know your mushrooms before you can be confident enough to eat them. They're delicious but also deadly.

Those in your pictures are almost as pretty as flowers, Ursula. I do miss mushroom hunting in the fall in BC.

I remember hunting mushrooms as a boy in Indiana with my parents.

Beautiful pictures, Ursula.

Jim

These weekend the Spiranthes cernua are budding and Mushrooms are popping up everywhere!
This here is essentially a Mushroom walk!








And a bit more off topic, but I think very interesting: Our neighbor has a quarry. Every so often he dynamites it to harvest the shale to fix his local paths. Klaus (and also son and grandson when visiting) love to explore the layers for fossils. Most of the time one finds fossilized tree and other plant material, but yesterday Klaus found something really interesting! What do you think?

Love your multitudes of mushrooms. We get some very different ones but nothing in your league.

The fossil find is certainly interesting, have you forwarded those photos to the archaeology dept. at Penn State?

Alice, no, we have not.
This quarry does not belong to us, so we need to talk to the owner. He can decide what to do next.
I am hoping we can persuade him to move that large slab to our place. So far he has never shown any interest in any fossil we mentioned to him.

Great array of mushrooms, Ursula. And that looks like some sort of hip bone to me.

Looks like a bird's leg to me, Pterodactyl maybe? A small one? Really neat!

The mushrooms are as much fun as an array of wildflowers - so interesting and wow, some colors there, too!

Are any of those mushrooms edible?..What a variety!
That definitely looks like something of historic value...hopefully he will at least allow some expert to come and look at it...perhaps even offer to pay to remove it...this looks like quite a large heavy item...I can't wait to hear the outcome!

Small Pterodactyl sounds interesting, doesn't it? I do think I see a three-clawed foot.....

that's what I first saw as well....

Mushrooms???? oh yeah, I think I see those in the produce dept. Going to be a long time before any wild ones will be seen in So. Cal.!

Poor Carol and Ted. We are getting our first sprinkles in many, many weeks but I would gladly share with you guys.

Ursula, I showed your pictures to my son who has a degree in archaeology and he says since you have found other fossils in that area it is indeed possible that it could be some creature. Without that evidence they are just funny shaped rocks. Good luck in getting that slab or permission for others to explore there. What a thrill that would be for your grandkids.

Such a grand variety you have up there, Ursula. Thanks for sharing.

Jim

The Spiranthes cernua are blooming in NE Pennsy right now. They are not putting on a spectacular show this year, but we have enough plants starting to bloom to keep us happy.
Fall is definitely in the air, we woke up to 55 degr on Saturday morning, but it warmed up nicely! And the Goldenrod is in full bloom!

Looks like an absolutely GLORIOUS day for a walk

Absolutely, and 55 degrees would feel like a real treat to me, even if I did have to put on a coat. I've been out on the water for 2 days frying my brains running sailboat races - our little Sailing Squadron here has been doing a Labor Day regatta for 70 years. I still am amazed that people actually want to go sailing when it's this hot, and not dependably windy out there. Brutal!

Lovely pictures, Ursula but did you tell us what the pretty little yellow/red flowers are? Lady slippers of some sort?

They are wild Impatiens and they bloom in wet or damp spots. In some years you see nice and large patches along the walkway in the woods and at the edge of meadows and ditches. The only Hummingbirds we ever see here are in those blooms.

I see Impatiens..when I look at those leaves..but the flowers are totally exotic!

We took a walk this morning in Pennsy and we came across the Beech drops, which grow on decaying Beeches. I remember when I saw them first time and looked at the flower structure.

And - there were lots of Asters in bloom and a Butterfly on Boneset.


Walking along, some curious Mushrooms....cough cough......