fungus sightings – Page 2 – The Hermits' Rest

Early Beltane Greetings

What is your favorite holiday? Why is it your favorite?

I’m not very big on holidays, but I enjoy observing the changing seasons. May 1 is Beltane in the tradition I follow. It’s the big fertility celebration where all the flowers are blooming and you dance around the maypole, a thing I’ve done many times.

This cheerful day flower welcomes the changing seasons.

I like a holiday that’s all for fun, isn’t commercialized, and provides a chance to be as wild as you want to be. I’ll probably pick a May basket full of flowers and make a nice bouquet tomorrow.

That will be after my doctor appointment, where I have to get tests done to be allowed to continue my thyroid medication, followed by the equine dentist, another yearly traditional event at the ranch. I hope I can worm the horses while they’re sedated. That should end the parade of horse health expenses for a while.

Today was a first for me in a couple of ways. First, Drew kicked me for daring to try to groom his right side. He really doesn’t want me grooming him, so I guess I’ve been a bad horse owner and traumatized him.

I feel pretty awful about that and confused about what to do. On the one hand I’m supposed to be firm and set boundaries and on the other I’m not supposed to react. I’ll keep trying. My thigh sure hurts. Interesting that he doesn’t mind me cleaning 3/4 of his hooves, and is happy to be haltered and walk with me.

Second, I gave a living being a shot of medicine. Yes, this was after getting kicked. Drew was fine about that. He gets a shot a month from now on for arthritis pain. I’m proud I remembered how to do it. Maybe Tarrin will think I still have some potential as a horse person.

Speaking of pain and meds, Apache is feeling lots better. I’m pleased that he’s walking and trotting well without the boots on. He volunteered to canter but I had him stop. It wasn’t going well and he was hopping. Still, good news that he tried. He seemed energetic.

Also good is that he is now taking his medication like a champ, thanks to the magical cookies Sara made for Aragorn. Aragorn didn’t like them, but Apache seems to look forward to them. I guess I’ll have to get the recipe!

No new Apache pictures, so enjoy this very large mushroom.

Kathleen says this is my week for challenges, after getting stuck in the mud yesterday and kicked today. I’m trying to adopt her attitude of laughing the challenges off and staying positive.

Spontaining

Today Lee and I spontained, which is our cute couple’s word for doing something on the spur of the moment. He needed to get out of the house, so we did. We ran off to Waco (because any iNat observations I made there would count for my City Nature Challenge totals).

We went to the Waco Mammoth National Monument, which neither of us had ever been to before. I hoped to get lots of iNat observations, but it didn’t matter much, since I’d already gone out in the morning and got sightings of crawfish, a turtle, catfish, and Ssssindy the snake.

Wow, Suna, that’s a great photo of a crawfish.

We enjoyed the monument very much. The actual mammoth dig site is preserved with a cool roof and walls system that protects it. The walkway people go on in tours is suspended from the ceiling, so the bones are safe.

You can see the walkway and the site here.

I don’t think I realized before that this site has lots of mammoth fossils (and a camel). It’s the only such “nursery herd” site ever discovered in the US. Many bones are in a museum at Baylor University, but the ones we saw have been left in situ, and work is still ongoing with them.

It’s incredible that this mass death of mammoths happened, apparently more than once, when the Bosque River suddenly flooded. I’m amazed that these animals were here only 10,000 years ago, too.

Anyway, we enjoyed talking to a college student who was there with her archeology club, to another young adult who helped me get my National Park stamps going, and to the park rangers. I know that helped cheer Lee up.

And after looking at the dig site, we walked on some trails and found some plants and insects. Mostly it was hedge parsley and more hedge parsley, but we found other stuff.

It was nice having Lee help me. He spotted a few bugs! I must be rubbing off on him.

Back at the ranch, I found many interesting bugs and spiders on prairie parsley. If you want more butterflies, grow this! I also got a great look at a kingbird. The buntings and dickcissels are very loud but are also good at hiding.

It was so windy that I gave up on birds. Tomorrow I’m going over to Sara’s to see if she has any interesting plants. I’d probably win the challenge if I was able to go to Tarrin’s, but she’s out of town and I wouldn’t want to impose on her family. Maybe next year!

A little broken, like many of us, but this goatweed leaf wing (*Anaea andria*) was a beautiful find.

All in all, a little spontaining was good for us both.

Speaking My Truth

What’s a secret skill or ability you have or wish you had?

I often wish I were better at expressing myself, especially in the heat of the moment, when under stress, or when surprised by an unexpected turn of events. These are the situations in which I tend to do a particularly poor job of expressing what I want to say or reacting gracefully. I also, conversely, tend to get too lax with my words when I’m feeling very relaxed or comfortable. I can then make jokes that don’t go over well or say things I intend as friendly that I later find out were interpreted as rude or condescending. Yuck.

It’s easy to be misinterpreted and also easy to misinterpret others. That’s why I attempt to assume people have good intentions when something awkward comes out of their mouths, and ask for clarification.

This Texas vervain says let’s slightly change the subject.

Speaking of misinterpretation, I may have mentioned hearing weird sounds in the woods lately. First I heard some while camping, but then I started hearing eerie sounds like a sad animal calling out.

It was a spooky day in the woods, anyway.

The sounds were happening this morning, so I bravely decided to go find the source. As I got closer, I kept seeing icky worms, tent moth caterpillars, and slimy mushrooms. The wind was also howling and it was very cloudy.

The caterpillars are jumping around in there

Eventually I got to where I could tell where the sound was coming from. And from that spot, Merlin Bird ID finally piped in and said it heard a crow. Earlier, no ID was given for the sound, which had made me think it was an animal. I looked up and saw I was under a large tree. And in that tree was a very large nest. Aha.

I was hearing crow parenting sounds! Eek! I recognized the nest, because I used to see them in Chicago between O’Hare and Schaumburg, when I worked there. There was a large green belt with a huge rookery I loved to observe.

I won’t be quite so creeped out by the sounds from now on and will leave the crows alone to raise future corvids. You just never know what’s out there.

Though today was gusty, I got to see new blossoms in addition to the creepy stuff.

Found where the baby blue eyes are hiding!

Since it was my rest day, I had time to cook a nice meal for family and friends. It was a nice end to the day.

Tomorrow, dental fun. Just a cleaning, but my insurance is messed up. My fault, too.

Rainy Rain That Is Wet

I had a fun day of hiking and birding activities planned for today. However, it rained starting around 1:30.

We brought everything in on time. Well, Lee did.

Luckily I’d gone out earlier, when the skies were blue and the temperatures perfect. I enjoyed the short nature trail nearby, which had signs by all the different types of trees. They’d be more interesting with leaves, but the spring season seems about two weeks behind Milam County.

Trees. Some exemplars are no longer there due to bad weather up here.

I found a few fun things, such as my favorite spring beauties and some excellent fungi. One thing I found I’m still not certain what type of organism it is.

I headed over to the equestrian camping area, where there were zero equestrians, to meet up with the quite fun park interpreter and a volunteer. There was supposed to be a guided hike. However, there was advance notice of the thunderstorms coming, so it got cancelled.

I did enjoy talking to the two women about working at the park and met another camper. But, I briskly walked back (making my exercise goal). Rain didn’t start until I had Seneca the motorhome in sight, so I got every minute of outdoor time I could!

It turned out that the rain and lightning slowed down around 3, so I donned my rain boots and got out the golf umbrella for a walk around the camping loop. I am not used to sitting around for long periods!

I did, however, enjoy a nice long nap! How decadent. Otherwise Lee worked on a photo album and I wrote up all my Master Naturalist notes and knitted. Of course, I ran out of a color. Sigh. The next skein of lime green is sitting on my desk at home.

Never fear, I came as prepared for crafts as I did for rain, so there’s more yarn here. While watching a movie, I started a boring yet practical little bag to hold my phone when we’re on the road. The truck chassis has no helpful pockets or holders other than a cup holder, in which I tend to put cups, of all things.

It doesn’t look like much, but it’s bright.

I’m glad it should be drier tomorrow, because we only get three TV channels here and the cell signal probably isn’t good enough to stream. I’ll go on that hike tomorrow in the mud!

Plus, I Met a Horseman

Today didn’t go quite as planned, but it ended up okay. After an enjoyable rainy morning chat with Kathleen about what’s going on and her plans for the immediate future, I got some work done.

Isn’t this moth beautiful? It’s apparently a blackberry looper moth.

The sun came out soon enough, so I went out and found some more newly emerging wildflowers and a very cool fungus in the woods. I love my nature breaks.

The afternoon was supposed to be spent looking at potential four-wheel drive vehicles to tow behind Seneca the Motorhome, then some grocery shopping. Indeed, much car and truck looking ensued.

Truck that is $120K new. It has a built-in cooler.

I guess we lucked out, because exactly what we wanted was at the dealership, which was a used two-door Jeep Wrangler. Best of all, it was a 2023 with, get this, 1700 miles on it. The previous owner probably didn’t want such a low-frills vehicle. But for bopping around campgrounds and exploring nearby sights while Seneca stays parked, it’s ideal.

Though small, Lee can get in it easily. That’s good, because it will have to be his daily driver until we get a farm truck or something to pull the horse trailer. The trade-in on Lee’s previous vehicle was more than the purchase price of the Jeep (and that was way off its original price), so we aren’t out anything, either.

A Suna-sized car. No weird graphics or exterior bling. Good.

And, we enjoyed talking to Mark, our salesman, who is our age and has more horses and dogs than we do! That commonality helped pass the endless car-buying hours. His paint horses were so beautiful. I got his business card. Also there was knitting. Thankfully.

We still have to get the towing hitch put on the Jeep and finish some things up, so Lee will get to talk to ole Mark more tomorrow. I tell you, I was pleasantly surprised at how quiet and comfortable the car is on the inside, compared to ones I’d ridden in before. And it’s pretty peppy. I never was a huge fan of these cars, but this one will be just great. It’s a bit rough in the suspension department, but it’s an off-road vehicle. It’s supposed to be rough.

Another thing I’ll tell you is that I do NOT plan to take the thing apart. Maybe the front roof panels, but that’s it. I’m not mechanical enough to put pieces back together correctly!

By the way, we never made it to the grocery store.

Favorite Flower, Least Favorite Word

If you could permanently ban a word from general usage, which one would it be? Why?

I’m gonna make random readers learn about my encounter with a new favorite flower and some historical land before telling you what word I’d ban. I want to share happy things.

Anyone who’s known me a long time probably knows my favorite flower in the pansy. I love their colors and their happy faces. I had no clue that there are wild pansies in the US, since I only knew them from flats in the garden store. But there are!

Hello! I’m the American field pansy – *Viola rafinesquei*

There’s no info on it in iNaturalist, which surprised me. But it apparently grows all through the eastern US. Have you ever seen it?

I was quite entranced by these tiny mini-pansies, which I encountered in Southeastern Milam County today on a hike with friends and their sons along the old El Camino Real de Los Tejas trail, leading to the panoramic views at the top of a hill, where Native American settlements at the Ranchería Grande were located. It’s gorgeous, with 360° views of the area. (Fellow Master Naturalists own the property and with the help of volunteers will make it accessible to the public.)

I found another new plant, called smallflower fumewort (Corydalis micrantha). They were all over the field, too. It has a charming, yellow flower shaped like tubes. I never saw anything like it before!

We had three young boys with us who were very new to the concept of observing and preserving nature. One young man was very proud to have cut apart the snail shell I gave him. Another one really enjoyed hitting things with sticks to see the sounds they made. They took great glee at destroying any animal tracks they found, but we convinced them to leave the cool leaf cutter ants to their business. I think ant lions sounded scary so their holes were safe, too.

Spider wort didn’t scare anyone. I was pleased my friend found one blooming!

I hope the younger hikers learned some things, though, and it was fun listening to them and hearing how they think. I’ll have a lot more boys next week, as we take Cub Scouts along the trail. Here are some things the boys found interesting.

We adults had fun, probably more than the kids. I was happy to have a chance to hang out with my friend, her spouse, and my fellow Master Naturalist. Next week I’m on my own with no backup naturalist.

This photo shows a huge leaf cutter ant colony. Dozens of connected nests.

So, what word would I like to make go away? I find the word “libtard” especially offensive and disrespectful. It insults people with more progressive ideas by using “-tard” which is something people try not to use to refer to those who have mental disabilities. I guess the word helps me remember to do my best to avoid name calling and pejorative labels when talking about the new far, far right factions in the US.

Hurling insults is a time-honored tradition in politics, I know. That doesn’t make it any less distasteful.

Winning the Lottery without Playing

What would you do if you won the lottery?

I would not win the lottery unless someone gave me a winning ticket as a gift, in which case I’d probably share with the gift giver. I don’t play games of chance (life is a gamble, so I can’t say I don’t gamble).

But today I feel like I won the life lottery. I enjoyed my day, even with the long drive made longer by having to drive around a bad accident on the Interstate. Then I had to ask for help getting my gas cap cover to open. I must have broken it. But a very nice man helped me (I actually walked into the truck stop and picked a man who was being friendly to the clerk to ask for help). After we got the thing open, he saw the knitting bag in the back of my car. He said I looked crafty and me this flattened coin, saying I could bang on it and make myself a silver ring. There are good folks out there!

I listened to NPR the whole way, and though it wasn’t overt fascinating, I learned a few things about brains and such. Since it was sunny, the drive was just more cheerful. Seeing white pelicans flying for the second week in a row helped!

When I got home I checked on the horses. Lee says Drew was mean to him at the gate, like he was with my son the time he got hurt. I think we will have to work on that.

They do seem to appreciate the hay Lee gave them.

My gosh, in only two days the horses got more than double the amount of burs they had before. When I first saw Apache, he not only had all these burs, but hay was attached to it. This is bad enough!

I got many of these off while he was eating. But I have more, plus all of Drew to do before I can work with them.

After the horses and chickens were fed, I was watching football when my neighbor texted me asking if I’d ever seen one of these.

Texas Star (*Chorioactis geaster*) photo by Vicki King

This is a very rare fungus. Oddly, the Devil’s Cigar or Texas Star is found only in central Texas and Japan. I got very excited when Vicki sent the photo, because I knew exactly what it was. There had been an article about finding it in Inks Lake state park recently.

This is the first or second observation in Milam County on iNaturalist. I’m so glad to have photos with the GPS attached so I could share them and get Vicki’s sighting verified. I wish we could hear it hissing! Since very few people have seen the Texas Star, I really do feel like I won the lottery.

Map of iNaturalist observations. That’s our area, north of Cameron with the pin in it.

I’m going to go see it myself in the morning. I hope it’s not faded. What a find! I should be less tired tomorrow and maybe I can write something better in the Master Naturalist blog.

I Could Turn Left Rather Than Right

What could you do differently?

I think I already answered a version of this question so I’m going in a different direction with it. Ha ha. Direction. I mean, there’s a sh** ton I could do differently, and I’ve written about that enough.

Instead, let’s take a walk, but differently. Today I turned left rather than right when I left our driveway on my daily nature walk. Whoa.

I’d been wanting to walk the other way down our road past our property line for a while, because there are some empty fields and mottes of trees where I’ve heard interesting birds while I was busy doing horse control at Sara’s place.

So, off I went. First I had to enjoy the horses, who were lounging around after playing in the burs (mostly Drew). They’re so cute when they lie down. I do wish they then wouldn’t grind mud into their coats, but they ARE horses.

As for birds, I was glad I brought my binoculars, because I got to get a good look at our resident American Kestrel and see it fly with the sun shining through its feathers.

The sun was so bright today that things were hard to see, but I was rewarded by seeing sun dogs in the clouds on either side of it for a while. Perfect cloud placement.

I saw a lot of woodpeckers, vultures, hawks, and caracaras. I also noticed that all the doves I saw were Eurasian Collared Doves, not the Mourning Doves I see at my house right down the road. Binoculars helped with that.

I heard both Eastern and Western Meadowlarks, which is cool, but I didn’t see anything new other than a White-breasted Nuthatch. I thought I’d see. One before, but I guess not.

I’m glad I took the walk in this direction, because I got to visit with Sara and look at her permaculture garden progress. Of course, for me the highlight was getting to visit with Jhayati, who is 8 months old now. She’s a beautiful filly and has such a striking face. I sure look forward to watching her grow.

After I saw her, I saw one more mockingbird then no more birds at all. Do they have clocks? They shut up at 11am.

Luckily there was still something interesting to see. I saw what looked like eggs on the ground where hay bales recently were. It was the eruption of the most cool mushroom we have here, the Lizard’s Claw Stinkhorn Lysurus cruciatus.

Interesting note: I posted photos of this on The Hermits’ Rest Facebook page, which is public, and suddenly weird replies from so-called people trying to promote psychedelic mushrooms popped up, repeatedly. Sigh. Lots to block. This mushroom just stinks. I didn’t see anything about it being psychedelic, but I’m now glad I didn’t lick it.

Penney says she’d lick it for me.

Better Days Do Come

Sometimes when you have a long string of anxious and worried days, it’s nice to have one that builds you up. I hate it when I’m dealing with annoying physical symptoms and I’ve done all I can to get my equilibrium back, but the truth is sometimes I just have to wait it out. Today helped!

I got to enjoy what passes for fall color in College Station Today.

Penney woke me up by wigging and licking like crazy for about an hour, so I got up, looked at the damp day, and did my nails with a set I’d looked forward to using, which looked like a brocade cloth with big flowers on it. It didn’t go on really great, but it perked right up when I added some gaudy jewels I had hanging around. Now the whole thing looks over the top, but it cheers me up.

After talking to the chickens, I headed over to the place I got them, Bird and Bee Farm, where our Master Naturalist wildscape project is located. I rarely have time on their special days to get out there, so I was glad I had a while to drop by.

I’d intended to take photos of all the butterflies, but it was still too damp in late morning for them to be out. Even the bees were still napping.

My friend Debi and I looked at all the flowers and found lots of caterpillars and a cat.

All these black ones came up as salt marsh moths

It was so pleasant just wandering around and seeing what is still hanging around this time of year. The dew was so heavy that it made for fine photo ops. It’s nice to photograph non-wildflowers like roses and zinnias occasionally

I hung out with birds a bit, and heard a new wren on Merlin, a sedge wren. I wish I’d seen it because it sure looks cute in its photo online. Instead, here are turkeys.

After talking a while with other Master Naturalists, I had to leave. I hope Patsy notices I put my nails in the blog for her.

The reason I had to leave was that I had my second watercolor class at Brazos Watercolor Retreats in College Station. We learned to paint trees with sunlight pouring through them. There were lots of new techniques to learn, like making white space by putting some rubbery stuff on the paper before painting. I also learned to make the sun rays.

I didn’t do a great job on the tree part, but I know what I’d do differently if I tried again. For a first try, I’m fine with my finished product. Maybe I should get some paints, brushes, and paper. It’s fun to see how the colors come out.

I even made it home in time to feed the horses before it was too dark, which makes it a lot easier to give Apache his medicine. They have a new bale of hay, and judging from the holes in the wet ground, they had a good time running around after they escaped while the tractor was going in. Those little dickenses.

So, yay, today has been fine enough that I’m handling learning about a few deaths in my circle pretty well. I have plenty of energy to send out love to all the families and friends, which feels really good.

Hug a loved one.

Eye Witness to the Circle of Life

Today was a great camping day here at Buescher State Park. I’d like to start the highlights with some coolness that happened right at my campsite.

This is a Gulf fritillary butterfly in the straggler daisies behind our motorhome. I was knitting and enjoying the afternoon as various butterflies flitted by. This one seemed to have an agenda.

It flew over to a vine just beyond the edge of the woods. The butterfly spent a lot of time going from leaf to leaf. I actually hadn’t noticed the vine before, but looking at it I realized it resembled a passion vine. I hadn’t seen any here yet, and there it was, right in front of me.

As I was taking the photo above I noticed something. There were two caterpillars on the vine. I took pictures of them, too. Then I went to look up the plant and the insect.

Well. The plant was a yellow passionflower (Passiflora lutea). The caterpillars were Gulf fritillary babies. The butterfly had been laying eggs. Right there, the whole circle of life! Now I know the host flower for these guys.

As for the rest of the day, it started with chatting by the breakfasts of various fellow camping friends. Then I sort of led an interpretive hike down a wooded trail with seven other people. It was fun teaching the two kids some stuff as well as learning from all the campers.

We found some pretty flowers among the trees, including exuberant liatris, pink ruellia, and these darling tiny blue curls.

I enjoyed walking with folks who were as excited about little flowers as me, and a couple of the fellow campers were great observers. We even geeked out over fungi and molds.

It was a great time, but we ended up tired!

I did my nails a dark yet sparkly celestial color for the end of my beloved Daylight Savings Time, then hung out with various friends in the afternoon. It’s so good talking to people who know and accept you.

I made egg salad for the traditional Live Oak potluck meal. The eggs weren’t cooperative so it took a while, but it ended up tasty. Especially with homemade salsa on it.

For a small group we ended up with a perfect variety of foods. We just fit in the tent pad on one of our campsites. It was great to all be able to talk to each other. There was only one couple I hadn’t met yet, who were lots of fun and very interesting. What a good time.

The gang, minus Joanna and Tom, cause she has to preach tomorrow.

On our way back to our site, Lee and I tried to take star pictures. Mine are only okay because I moved and messed up Jupiter. We also tried to get some of the lake.