Finding Mushrooms

Let’s go for a walk in the woods, I texted Jackie.  With all the rain there will probably be a lot of mushrooms. 

That morning I made borscht.  We’d go for a walk while Jon was writing, have lunch, then hang out with the donkeys for a while.

With Jackie along, I knew we’d see more mushrooms than if I walked alone.  That’s what happened the last time we walked together in the woods during the summer.  We both saw things that the other didn’t.

Fate and Zinnia ran ahead of us circling back when we stopped to take a  longer look or a picture of something.  The first thing Jackie found was a well-camouflaged toad, about the side of my fist, trying to dig its way under the pine needles.

I was right about there being plenty of mushrooms….

…they grew in bunches on moss-covered rotting tree stumps…

…or pushed their way up from the ground through leaves and pine needles.

These looked like puff balls to me.  But when I poked one, I didn’t see any spores come out of the hole in the top of the mushroom. I do love the little lacy design along the lower edge of them.

By the time we saw the mushroom below, I was getting hungry.  It looked to me like a cinnamon-encrusted dessert.  Jackie suggested Creme Brulee.  After that, we headed back to the farm for lunch.

I have found that if I go looking for mushrooms I find them.  Once I spot the first one and take the time to bend down and get a closer look or take a picture of it, other mushrooms reveal themselves to me.

It may be a superstition of mine, but I feel like if I ignore the first mushroom I see, I miss many others along the way. It might be that I’m putting the time in and focusing my walk when I make the effort with that first mushroom.

The same way that when I focus on my work in my studio, it tells me what to do next.