Magic Mushroom

Magic Mushrooms

They dot the mountain sides this time of year in the Colorado Rockies, more specifically, Summit County. These were found just outside of Jefferson in South Park. I had never seen red mushrooms before, but apparently they are common because as I tell friends about them they have seen them.

Scientifically known as Amanita Musceria, also known as Fly Agaric

because it was once used as fly poison.

Easily recognized as the mushroom the caterpillar sat upon in Alice and Wonderland.

Thought to house fairies and gnomes.

Used unwisely as an hallucinogenic. Best to dry the caps first, they say.

Known for its mystic and religious powers.

A really interesting plant,

Source of text

But deadly poisonous. 

And these little guys are cute, but I have not yet been able to identify them.

Check out this article on mushroom hunting

Novice mushroom hunters will join an organzied hunt lead by true experts who know the difference between the poisonous shroons and the safe ones. 

Me-- I'll buy mine at the super market.

And look what I found in my own garden:

This little toad abode has been in the garden getting moved from hither to yaun, so, inspired by the mountain mishroom, I gave mine a new look and a new purpose--a fairy home. The toads never used it anyway.

And more from the garden:

Our peach harvest. I put our poor little peach next to an apricot so that you could see just now small it is. But what it lacked in size it made up in flavor. The little peach tree was loaded with baby peaches, but they all fell off. A seasoned peach grower told me that the same happened to his peaches. There is always next summer. Right?

Pans and buckets of tomatoes.

The tomatoes are not very pretty, but they will make a very good salsa.

Only four potato plants were ready to dig: russet (rather small-- more water), Yukon gold, and red.

Finally from the berry patch. The strawberries are a year old now and should be producing gallons. We have 3 varieties. The  last to be planted came from Jen's garden and once they got more water, the berries started to form. The blackberries are small, again more water, but worse I found a Japanese beetle buried head first in one berry. Never had them before. Now what do I do about them?

Thank you for all of the encouragement. We tend to think that we are the only ones who don't get perfect crops. 

The university classes started yesterday without me. I had a bit of a moment, then I got over it and decided to embrace retirement  by posting to my blog on this my second day of retirement. I will stop counting the days now and start enjoying the things that I really want to do. I am thinking about signing for an online class offered by Kim klassen on using photoshop Elements II. I will let you know how that goes. 

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.