Toadstools Gone Wild -or- What kind of fairies ARE you?!

I like mushrooms. I do!
But may I say, that for those of you who do not...
This post is not for the faint of heart.


We've always had mushrooms in our yard: It rains, a few pop up here and there, it dries up, they disappear. The whole process usually happens so fast that I have no time to dig them up, even if I feel the desire to. This year is different.


What do you think of when you think of mushrooms? Are you a romantic, like me? Do you think of these little spotted cuties?

...complete with a tiny fairie to sit atop them and enchant the crickets?Well, I got news for you, pal. I think my yard is infested with evil fairies.


See her? She has it out for my yard, I just know it. Take a look at the very NOT cute mushrooms occupying my front yard:


Oh, sure, they don't look so bad in that picture - a little obnoxious, maybe. Heh heh heh. Take a look at them with some common items thrown in for reference!

Can you say, "Holy crap, ya'll!"? 'Cause, um, holy crap!

(That's a size 9 1/2 sandal, btw!)


When I went out to dig those guys out of the yard, I realized that they were not alone. (cue dramatic music) In addition to those "lovely" specimens, there were at least 5 other varieties growing ABUNDANTLY in my grass!

I had these little brown ones growing both alone and in forest form:


...hiding under grasses, even.
I have fairie mushrooms like the first picture, and even one or two pink ones like this:

I even had one of these little teeny tiny buttons! It almost seemed a shame to dig him up, he was so cute snuggled into the moss under the pine trees!

Why am I blogging about mushrooms, you ask? Well, let me tell you something: normally, I wouldn't, but you see this bit of yard here?

(Lovely, just lovely. Oh, thank you! You're welcome. Where was I?)

Oh, yes. In this tiny little corner of yard, on my way to the big ones, I found all of these:


Yes, my friends, that is a flower flat FULL of shrooms. Those little buggers were hiding EVERYWHERE! What should have been a 5 minute dig turned into a 30 minute - how dang hot is it out here anyway - event of torture!

All told, my (quite fragrant) crop of mushrooms came to this:


Here's that big sandal again - just to help you soak it all in:


Sheesh.

Now THAT's a lot of shrooms.

PS. My son has been saddened by the loss of the mushrooms. Apparently, they weren't disappearing last year after all -- he was running out in the morning and kicking them. -sigh-

PPS Next time, HE gets to dig them up.

PPPS Don't kick mushrooms. They like it.

The Meadow

On Tuesday, I came home from work and announced to the kids that we were going for a walk.


They were excited until I told them that they could not bring scooters and we were not headed to the playground.


I also refused to tell them where we were headed, and so regretfully leaving their wheels behind, they followed me out the door...








When we arrived at the meadow, they were, shall we say, hesitant to be excited or interested.


In spite of that, I armed them each with a cell phone camera and told them to explore: take pictures of anything you like, watch out for thorns and thistles, and see what you can see.


I also encouraged them to take photos from unexpected angles.




Within minutes, they were enthralled and I could barely keep up with them.


Annie went from flower to flower, photographing as many different kinds as she could, along with their various bugs.


Jimmy remarked on how easy it would be to get lost in the grass, some of which stood as high as his head (almost to my shoulder).


We talked about types of plants and bugs and what it would be like crossing the plains in grasses that went on for miles and how to find field mice and snakes and the kinds of birds that circled the meadow above us.








On the way home, we gathered flowers to put in a vase and the kids made me promise to take them back soon. It was so great just wandering about in a spot where we could see no cars, no houses, and no other people.















Jimmy writes:

My most favorite part was wishing I could jump in the pond. The pond was huge, but Mom said no because it was all dirty and muddy. It felt great and we kept picking flowers for a bouquet. I saw flowers like dandilions and Annie saw flowers that look like Einstien. And I saw a giant pinecone!

Annie writes:

If I may say so myself, the trip to the meadow was awesome! Wildflowers and wild, unkempt grasses as far as the eye can see! As long as you can't see far. There are bugs everywhere! A beetle on this flower, a butterfly on that bush, a dragonfly near the pond! It was so full of nature, it was overwhelming!

The flowers we saw included brown-eyed Susans, Queen Anne's Lace, and daisies.

Plus, some little spiky balls on stems with grassy things sticking up out of them, and I named them Einstein flowers.


I also saw a butterfly that was orange and brown. Mom hadn't seen it before, so I don't know what it was.

Plus there was a dragonfly with see-through wings hanging out in the grass. These are key points in our trip to the meadow.

Because Virginia is great like that.

Just in case the pollen story wasn't enough for you....

The scene: 6:30. Exterior of an elementary school. Mom arrives to pickup her 9-yr-old son from a day-long field trip to historic Petersburg.

Mom: So, how'd it go?
Son: Great!!!!
Mom: What'd you do?
Son: I learned how to load and fire a gun!!!


Awesome. Just awesome.



He was "drafted" into the army and was preparing for battle. Here are the fighting instructions he explained. I would include the loading instructions, but it was mostly a lot of him saying, "First you took the stuff and then the thing and you put it in the other thing and then you pushed on it...." I got lost.

Where was I? Oh, yes. How to fight:
Ready - hold it like a guitar.
Aim - hold it up to your shoulder and aim.
Fire - shoot the gun.

Don't eat it!

Every year when Spring comes barreling in, we see this little green box on our weather page for a week or so...

...and they're not kidding. Every car in the county looks like this one:


Every flat surface gets a coat, like a dusting of fresh snow. If we get no rain, it builds and builds and builds in the air until you can see it hovering in the stillness, like dust motes in a sunbeam.


This is the table on our deck out back.


At first glance, it may seem like a nice frosted-glass table with a few leaves scattered on it. But, sadly, no. That's a clear-topped table; the "frost" is 2 days-worth of pollen.


You can see it built up along the edge of the glass, and I wiped away a spot so you can see how clear it should be without the pollen.

On second thought, I probably shouldn't have used my hand.


Of course, the owner of this mini-van probably thought the same thing about her kids.


There is pollen on literally EVERYTHING. Even my dog. I rubbed a line down her side, too, so you could see it in her fur. She was out running around the back yard for about ten minutes or so, and came back in with a golden sheen.

I do like the way my neighborhood and my state look with all of the trees, and I love the freshness of the air, too, but my goodness, I could do without the pollen!

(and if you think that was bad: Wait until acorn season. I have seven 70 foot oak trees on my 1/3 acre lot.)