Category: New Hampshire

Finding Fall Mushrooms

I bought a great mushroom book. It’s written by David L. Spahr and has awesome photos, descriptions and information concerning “Edible and Medicinal Mushrooms of New England and Eastern Canada”.

Even though his photos are great and his explanations of what to look for almost convince me I could find these for my dinner, he warns that many mushrooms have look-a-likes that can be poisonous and I think I have found some of those poisonous ones in my yard.

But all I want to do is identify the ones I see around here, so the book is very helpful. I only buy mushrooms from the grocery store and they have recently begun to offer some new varieties like the Shiitake, Crimini and Black Trumpet which I am planning to try.

mushroom on a tree
Some sort of mushroom

I don’t know what the one in the picture above is. It looks a bit like a deformed “Chicken of the Woods” but I don’t know.

white mushrooms
Little White Mushrooms

I think that the ones pictured here are Coprinus atramentarius. The author talks about the “Shaggy Mane” mushroom and has a photo of others that look similar and I think those are like mine. He says that within a day or 2 they will be “black, inky goop”, so I’ll have to go back out into the woods to see if that’s what happened.

Lots of Changes This Year

Writing a blog, sharing photos, and doing research and making links takes time. Lately I don’t think the time spent doing all that is worth enough to continue. I have stopped writing my gardening blog, and downgraded my seashells/ boating / camping blog. I’ve been spread too thin for too long. The past 18 years…

Pam's avatar by Pam

Knitters and Our Many Projects

How many projects do you have on your needles? It is not uncommon to find that fellow knitters have many things going at once.

Pam's avatar by Pam

Searching For Fall Color

orange maple leaf
Maple Leaf

I’ve been watching for the leaves to change and so far I am a bit disappointed. I do see some very vivid colors in places, but not much around here where I live. The past couple of years the trees were so bright and I’d walk down by the lake almost every day to get some new photos.

So far, there isn’t much to see at the lake and when I took a walk this past week I got a shot of one tree that seems to always have good color, but it was only partially turned.

New England foliage
Some Fall Color

sun through the trees
A walk in the woods

I’ve read that hot, dry summers are not good for producing great Fall color and that is exactly what we had for summer weather this year. So far, I think it might be true. I meant to take my camera and get some shots of one area where I saw some beautiful trees, but I forgot the other day and now the wind and rain has come, so I don’t know what’s left. I guess I’ll just wait and see how the color turns out.
But it is possible to get nice photos of green trees as well.

The Artist’s Conk Mushroom

I recently purchased a good mushroom book and found out that this set of mushrooms I had found last Fall is called the “Artist’s Conk” (Ganoderma applanatum).

I almost spelled it “conch” since I am so used to doing seashell research on the conch (pronounced the same as conk).

It can be etched or painted and will stand up on a table for display. Sounds interesting, but they are very much attached to the trees they grow on and very difficult to remove. I half tried to do so without luck. I guess I need a knife. Or better yet, just take a photo!

See more photos and a picture of a carved drawing at Mushroom-Collecting.com

mushrooms
The Artist's Conch

My Brilliant Idea For Getting In Shape

Getting “in shape” is all relevant.  It depends on what kind of shape you are in in the first place.  And my shape is getting rounder by the day.  So I’m not in good  shape.

First of all I don’t really care that I am a size 12. I am in midlife, have given birth to 4 kids and sit at a computer all day working. I won’t ever be a size 8 or probably even a 10 again. I don’t care. I have no one to impress and just care about being healthy… and I know it is not healthy to lead a sedentary life, which I hate to admit is happening.

Yes, I am writing about the boring and all too many times written about – weight loss, but not really. I just want to be in better shape. I won’t get much smaller, but I refuse to get larger. I am acquiring a spare tire around my middle that is quite depressing and I know it’s from sitting at this computer so much.  There is no movement happening!!

Today I had a hard time finding clothes to wear when I went out to the DUMP!!! Now that is bad.

My excuses are these: I don’t have a yard of my own and I used to work constantly in the gardens, digging and expanding and weeding – all that. I have no incentive to do that now. It’s not my yard and I am just doing it for someone else. And who knows how long I’ll even live here. There is no future in it, if you know what I mean, and you might not, but anyway….

Same thing with the house. It’s not mine so I take care of it, but don’t spend time wondering how I could make it cuter or nicer. Again, there is no point. Those are the two big changes in my life and because of them, I have to concentrate elsewhere and it happens to be working online. So I sit from 3 or 4 AM until at least 3 PM with a few breaks in between to let the cats in ..and out…and in… and out…AND I do laundry and dishes etc. to make myself move.

I’ve had excuses all summer for not going walking in this beautiful area. We’ve had one of the hottest summers in recent northeast history, the besides that, when I have walked, the horse flies have been so horrendous that I wished I had just stayed home.  Also, there are ignorant people on my road let their dogs run out and bark at me when I walk. So I’ve gone walking very little.

Today I got a brilliant idea. My rental is a ranch, but there is a cellar with a straight flight of stairs going down to it. I am going to use those stairs to get into better shape.

I am going to set the timer for an hour and when it goes off I will walk up and down my stairs for 3 minutes. (I checked to see how long I could do it and 3 minutes is a good starting point – I told you I was out of shape!)

Then I will set the timer again and do it again. All day I will do that and it’s got to help some! Three minutes every hour? Who can’t spare that. No excuses!!!

In 18 minutes I’m going for a walk.

Check out this funny postcard by my friend Tom aka Swiss: