Lichen, Shelf Fungi, Mushrooms

We toddled along to the ravine for our daily amble a little earlier than usual. Lately, we have tended to go out for our woodland ramble when my husband feels he's had just about enough for the morning, working on his new project, our second, and quite large, garden shed. I'd done the laundry, cleaned up the kitchen and the powder room and our bathroom, put new linen on our bed, and was ready to go, but I like to wait until he decides he's had it, for the morning.

Our backyard bakes in the sun. It's always been a hot-spot. Fine for me, sitting comfortably on the glider, under the awning on the deck, relaxing, reading, because I'm sheltered from the sun and nice, stray breezes accommodatingly make their way through the deck rails to cool me off. But he really does need a break. Who might ever have imagined, after the cool and wet summer we've had that September would turn out so dry and hot?

Camera slung over my shoulder, bag of peanuts in hand, off we went, to liberally sprinkle largess for our squirrely admirers, and take the occasional photograph of anything that tickles our fancy. There weren't as many squirrels awaiting our passage along the trails today, and we attributed that to the time differential from our usual trek through the ravine. We missed our little black stub-tail; obviously he was elsewhere seeing to other business.

Although we'd seen white-clustered pussy toes yesterday, a nice patch of them among the asters, we weren't able to find them today, and that seemed odd. We did however, find an admirable patch of those luscious large purple asters with more regular petals radiating out from the central yellow core, among the nondescript white and mauve types. That was certainly worth a photograph.

As was the bitter root vine that had taken possession of an immature, slender, and sadly very dead tree trunk, twirling its greenery around the trunk, and reaching to its modest heights, berries dangling pale orange, preparatory to a more vibrant bright orange presence in early winter. The berries have a tendency to fade as winter progresses, and then finally crack, with the icy temperatures. We always wonder why birds haven't feasted on them.

As we progressed on our walk, fungi we hadn't noted on earlier rambles presented themselves. Some of the large shelf fungi are a rich cinnamon colour ranging to a muted mahogany, and they're quite beautiful. A colony of tiny mushrooms appears to have sprung up overnight as well, in places where one would least expect them, directly on the trail, obviously growing on dead, buried tree roots.