'I'm always looking for the Hows and the Whys and the Whats,' said Muskrat, 'That is why I speak as I do. You've heard of Muskrat's Much-in-Little, of course?'
'No,' said the child. 'What is it?'
- The Mouse and his Child. Russell Hoban.

Go here to find out more.

Wednesday 7 January 2009

Misty Mushroom Morning

Last week we had a few days of unusually humid, misty weather. It was a novelty to go for my early morning walk and not be able to see the trees on the other side of the park. It was like being in a private world that ends with a horizon only 400 metres away.

And it seemed the place was blooming with fungi ... more like autumn than the middle of a hot Bay of Plenty summer.

I tried to train Shelly to seek them out like those French pigs after truffles but she was much more interested in other dogs' letterboxes...

"Look, sniff these Shelly. Now, find! Find! Hey, there's none over there!"




Neither of these types look edible.


And you find these in rings around picnic rugs. They are inedible too.


We spotted a pukeko (swamp hen) picking its way through the grass. Shelly finds them hard to resist chasing.


The summer sun was just beginning to burn the mist off when we began our walk back.

NB Click on the images. For some reason all these photos look rather plain, but if you click on them to enlarge them, they look great! I think it's because of the lower contrast than those I usually post.

PS. I'm working on them opening in a new window. In the meantime, sorry it navigates you away from my post!

6 comments:

  1. I love fog. It's so eerie.

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  2. I think the photos look lovely. Do you have a guide to the mushrooms? and do you pick any to eat?

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  3. No problem navigating away. It takes only one click of the back button to return. I still don't know how to put non-clickable photos on my blog, but I suppose I could figure it out.

    Is that a foot bridge in the final picure?

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  4. I love it too, Debbie, but preferably when it's warm, or there is the strong likelihood of it gone by ten am!

    Thanks Lori ann. I've picked mushrooms since I was little with my parents, so I know the 'safe' ones. Oh yes I eat them! I picked about 40 the day of this post, and we had Beef Stroganov for dinner, and plenty for a fry-up for lunch the next day too.

    Dan - Ah well, I guess it's not a big deal, but someone's helping me fine-tune my blog and suggested it as an improvement...

    Yes, it is a foot-bridge. It wobbles in a way I find a bit alarming, especially if there is more than one crossing at the same time! It's quite safe, however.

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  5. Anonymous9.1.09

    You eat wild mushrooms! Brave woman!

    Lovely pictures. Makes me quite nostalgic. Maybe I should pop back and see if I can get past the whole not-being-able-to-beathe and the swelling-up-alarmingly things?

    *Sigh*

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  6. Oh Jay. Are you allergic to mushers? And I seem to recall Yellow Swordfish saying lots of other foods too? What a pain.
    But I'm really glad your shoulder is getting along nicely.

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