New Day 60 – Lost and Found

It’s been a long time since I blogged. But today I got the bug again, and headed out into the woods in search of mushrooms. I did not take Oliver with me as the last time I headed into the woods with him, I got lost, and we walked for several hours before I found the road again. We’d gone in a U-turn.

I did think briefly of taking my compass, but decided since I was taking a route I’d taken many times, there was no need. (You know what’s coming, don’t you.)

It’s a grey and damp day, but warm, with no real rain.

Heading out into the woods at the back of my property.

Some beautiful dead trees on the way to the stream.

I’ve found the stream, and will now follow this to the pond. No mushrooms yet.

Look at those lovely velvet rocks.

With the stream at my right, I know the pond is up ahead. Still no mushrooms—at least not the edible kind.

Here We are at Hodge Pond. It is a reassuring and beautiful sight.

Another view of the pond. This pond is in the middle of the woods, with no houses, and no people except the rare person like me and the occasional hunter.

One more view of the pond before I head off for the old logging road that will take me back home.

I’ve decided, rather than heading straight ahead to where I know the road is, I will cut through the woods at an angle. I’ll either hit the logging road, or the road it runs into. I can’t get lost because I’m surrounded by roads on three sides, and the pond on the other. Here I have run into a stone wall that is typical of NH woods—they are scattered throughout all the woods here, as this was all pasture land once.

Okay…so I’m lost. I’ve been walking for some time now—don’t recognize anything. Here’s a hunter’s old ladder. The tree platform has gone—probably rotted away along time ago. But I’m encouraged—if a hunter got in here, I can get out.

At this point I’ve stopped looking for mushrooms. I’m looking for anything that might lead me out of here. I come across boundary markers, so I start following them. But then I notice they are all over the place, and not in a straight line. Which way to go? I don’t know. Then I hear gun shots. It’s hunting season. At least I was smart enough to wear my red and yellow reflective vest. I decide to head towards the sounds of the gun.

But then I come across a straight stone wall. I think this will help me stay in a straight line. I follow it. I tell myself that even if I have to sleep in the woods for the night, I’ll be okay. But then the wall just ends. So I say a little prayer and head off in what I think might be the right direction. Then suddenly I can see what looks like an open area, in the distance. I head for that.

As I approach, I can see that it’s a body of water, but I’m so confused. I cannot think of another body of water in the direction I believed I was heading. As I draw near, I see that it’s Hodge Pond. I have been going in a big circle (or circles—for all I know.)

I decide not to be stupid this time, and I walk keeping as close to the pond as I can without getting my feet wet.

As I walk, and remember how large the pond is, I realize I’d taken my “short cut” way too soon. But I’m taking no chances this time.

After taking that last pond photo, I turned around and saw at my feet, the mushrooms I’d been hoping to find. These are Oyster mushrooms and they are delicious. I took this cluster. A little gift from Mother Earth.

These I left, to seed themselves for next year.

At the bottom of the tree was this little fairy house. I knocked, but no one seemed to be home.

And there’s the road—between those two stone walls.

I’m heading home.

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New Day 28 – A Walk and A New Walkway

Stopping at the water’s edge

Bo and I walked the trail today. It’s the first time we’ve done this since spring. The deer flies were so bad earlier that walking was not pleasant, even with my hat covered in ferns (old wives method for keeping deer flies away). Once the flies were pretty much gone, the garden consumed most of my time with dehydrating, freezing, and making soups with all the bounty.

Blurry photo, but this little frog is only half an inch long

 

I don’t know what this blue flower is, but when I tried to photograph it a white spider crawled out (see it at the edge?)

 

Anyway, today was a beautiful mild late summer’s day – perfect for a walk. I took my backpack, a plastic bag or two, and my camera. I had my mind on an oak tree on which I’d found a huge mushroom some years back. At the time I hadn’t identified it, but recently at a party, one of the women brought a huge mushroom which looked quite similar. Hers was a chicken mushroom, and very edible. She shredded and sautéed it – delicious. Anyway – I was hoping this might be the same species. We have had so little rain this summer that most mushrooms have been few and far between, so I wasn’t surprised when I got to the oak tree and found nothing. Actually, I was a little surprised that there wasn’t even a sign of the old one as it had been big enough to fill my arms, and seemed the sort that would go hard and hang on for a long time.

 

Coral mushroom – edible

Never mind – we ambled along the trail, and I took a few photos. Then, much to my surprise I came upon a patch of coral mushrooms. I’ve eaten these many times. Ideally one picks these when first up out of the ground and are still pure white, but these were still edible. I also found two puff-balls still at the edible stage.

 

Back at home

When we got home, I washed and dried the mushrooms in the sun, and then sautéed them in olive oil along with zucchini and yellow tomatoes from the garden. I am still in awe of Mother Nature who provides my summer meals in such abundant and delicious ways.

 

Lunch

She has also provided squashes and parsnip for the winter.

 

Look at these fabulous butternut squashes

 

and beautiful butternut blossom

 

Still making zucchini

 

Just about ready to harvest – I’ll be doing that next week

The afternoon was spent connecting the chicks’ A-frame to the netted tunnels through which the other hens and cats meander. I simply used the cat bridge I’d removed earlier as a connector between the two. Then I let Audrey and the chicks free to explore. They must have been watching me working away, because they ran down the ramp and over immediately to the connector.

 

Exploring the new connector

 

Greens again – though a little hard to reach

 

Running through the tunnel

 

Here comes the leader

 

What’s that shiny round thing?

 

Hi!

 

Room for the whole family

 

 

I’d blocked the tunnel at the bridge to keep the other chickens and cats from entering the chicks’ end of the tunnel. At some point I’ll open things up so they can all mix. But not until I’m confident the chicks can’t get out, and they are completely familiar with the territory. I’m not sure how Audrey would respond to one of the cats actually going all the way into her coop. I guess I’ll have to stand guard for a while. There’s not a lot of room in the tunnels for passing without rubbing shoulders.

 

Dead ended at the bridge

 

exploring the bath house

 

Excuse me – that’s our bath house!

The chicks and Audrey had a grand old time – not so sure about the ostracised hens.

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Day 51 – Woodland Treasures

Birch Bark Bounty

I procrastinated a bit today and decided to spend my outside time walking in the woods, instead of raking leaves. I did set one practical goal – that of finding some more birch bark for kindling, but my main objective was just to wander around and enjoy being outside. The weather was warm enough for a light coat for me, and no coats for the dogs. We headed straight out the back into the woods to fill up my bag with birch bark first. This was almost immediately accomplished when we came upon an old stand of birches long dead and decaying. The bark was easy to harvest, and with a few firm slaps, the organic material was dislodged from the outer bark. With that goal accomplished, I just wandered around seeing what there was to see. Here are photos taken during our meanderings.

A foxhole perhaps

We came upon an entrance to an underground tunnel large enough for a fox or raccoon, and shortly after that I spotted a much smaller underground tunnel. Neither one photographed well, but by using the flash I always hope I’ll find I’ve got a photo of the owner hiding down out of sight.

A small burrow

A favorite spot

We ambled by a cluster of trees with evergreens spreading out beneath them. I have no idea why I am so drawn to these clusters of evergreens growing like this in the woods. There’s something magical about them. It might be because they seem to grow in sunny spots, and from a distance, it appears as if the trees had opened up to let the sun pour down on these green oases. I always head for them when I see them. I clear away any debris that’s fallen on the greens, and sometimes pull up the lower branches that get buried when the leaves and pine needles fall. Perhaps some night I’ll go in search of these spots to see if the orbs hang out here as well.

Old tree standing

We came upon a beautiful old tree – just a stump now, about 10 feet tall. There were all sorts of fungi growing on it. Everything about this was beautiful. [If you click for a larger image, the beauty is more apparent.]

Magnificent old tree 2

Magnificent old tree 3

Magnificent old tree 4

Old tree bark 1

Old tree bark 2

The boys

Then we wandered down by the water and took a few photos…

Late afternoon at the pond

The old stonewall river bank

Yin and yang

Polypore on a dead branch

and then spotted a dying tree that looked as if it had been painted with thick white paint. When I got close, I found it was covered with a fungus of some sort that is quite hard to the touch, but when seen up close in the photograph looks lacey and delicate. I have since looked it up and it is called Milk-white Toothed Polypore.

Up close and beautiful

Then I started spotting all sorts of fungi. The Turkey tail is the most common fungus around here (actually, I guess it’s a polypore too), but I think it is very beautiful. I found an interesting, very tiny fungi that looks like crowns, or perhaps hand puppets. [Please note that I’m pretty ignorant about what these things are. I guess they are all mushrooms, but technically, they are classified as fungi, polypore, mold, and more.]

Turkey tails

It’s interesting how many of these mushrooms look like sea creatures, and many of them are named as if they were, such as the coral mushrooms. When you start looking at these things, they are totally captivating. 

More turkey tails

Puppet show

Look like sea shells

We finished the day by stripping an old Birch tree trunk that had come down in the recent overnight winds.

Stripping a fallen tree

They know home is that way

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