Fungus among us

Mom called me this morning and asked if we could come help load wood. It seems she found a fir windfall and was desperate to get to it before anyone else did. While she went to town to pick up the wood permit (the Forest Service had already marked it for her), I took a walk in one of the fields down by the infamous orchard (infamous due to it inhabiting bears that may or may not have been on a certain someone's menu-wish-list).

Yes, it appears grass is greener on the other side of the fence! The old apple orchard is on the other side of the fence towards the middle left of the photo. I try not to venture in this area after dusk due to wild creatures. Actually...I don't really go anywhere at Mom's after dark due to all the coyote, cougar, skunk and bear problems. I already have irrational fears of the dark and I don't need any real life situations to occur and make things worse. You see, I quickly jump on my bed every night because I can imagine a dried up brown, wrinkly hand reaching out from under the bed to grab my leg. I know it's silly but I can't help it, I start to get chills if I don't hop in bed right away. So if I were to unexpectedly see a coyote at night (you know, like if I wasn't in a controlled situation such as in Mom's car holding her rifle on my lap while she spotlighted the field looking for the coyotes howling over a new elk calf) I may or may not have an anxiety attack. And that would hurt.

During my walk I noticed several types of mushrooms growing in the field. There were at least three or four different types mixed in with the elk poop and grass. Ah, lovely elk poop! It was only a couple days old, I checked it. (And then there was that time I collected several elk poop samples in my pocket and took them to an Uncle to have him explain to me why some looked different than others. Hey, he was informative!)

This mushroom reminded me of that time in high school when Faythe and I were sitting at a campfire, laughing hysterically (OK there were thousands of times we laughed hysterically and mostly for no reason at all and no, we were not high even though everyone thought we were), and I accidentally flung my roasting marshmallow in her face. Oh, those were good times! You may be wondering about the connection...it looks like a roasted marshmallow, right?

These two mushrooms are just cute. It looks like the taller mushroom is trying to squash the growth of the shorter mushroom by leaning on him with his elbow. (The mushroom Man is keeping him down!) I also like the contrast of the barn roof, sky and grass to the neutral mushroom color.

Tomorrow, hopefully pictures of Paul Bunyan-like activity. Also a bonus Red Circle of Death story which involves a dead animal and a box of sugary snacks. Yum!

Some photos I meant to show you earlier

When we first moved here, the leaves were turning bright, beautiful colors. This is a leaf from a Maple tree/bush thing in our yard. It looks like a tree that someone tried to cut down that has since grown back in the form of a bush (it still has remnants of a stump). I may be wrong, I don't know anything about trees.


I took this after our first snow fairly early in the morning before any cars had driven through it. I just love how snow blankets everything and peacefully muffles sound. I'm hoping it snows more this winter.

Soothing my nerves

Yesterday I let stress get to me, so I took a break from work and went to Balboa Park to relax and get some sun. To my surprise, the Botanical Building was open. I've never been in the park when it's open so I was happy to go in and check out all the plants. Here's a few of the photos I took, you can find the rest in my Flickr account (my photostream is available in the column on the left).

My birthday

This afternoon I had decided to blog about how pathetic today was. See, it's my birthday and as far as birthdays go, it was about as un-birthday like as could be. This isn't really saying a lot since I haven't celebrated that many birthdays. Aimee and I grew up in a religion that doesn't celebrate holidays or birthdays so now as adults free from oppression, we really take them seriously.

So today I moped around a bit and felt sorry for myself because things didn't turn out even remotely as well as I hoped they would. To be honest, it was just like any other day and I was beginning to feel annoyed that I actually took the day off. I went back and forth between making Apollo feeling guilty and smiling and making jokes. (I think I need to talk to my doctor about those hormones she has me on.) Anyway, on the way home from buying my own birthday cake from Extraordinary Desserts (oh yes, oh yes I did dammit), we stopped at a grocery store to pick up garlic bread for dinner. Apollo went inside while I sat in the car, listened to sad songs on my iPod and felt sorry for myself.

Then I met Richard.

I watched him in front of the store talking to people who walked by, some of them pretending he didn't even exist. He realized I was sitting in my car and walked up to my window to talk to me and ask for money. Thankfully Apollo showed up at that time because honestly, I was getting a little nervous about a stranger approaching me like that. Long story short, after talking to Richard, a homeless person, I realized how silly I was behaving and how lucky I am. It was as if someone deliberately put him in my path so I would get a nice dose of Reality Bitch Slap. We ended up talking to him for a little while and learning about this life. It was the best birthday present I could have received.