Latest Mushrooms in Northern California

We've had a couple hard freezes, followed by warm spells and some good, drenching rains.  This has brought up a new crop of mushrooms.  It's definitely a new phase in mushroom season: gone are most of the amanitas, slippery jacks and chanterelles, and in their place are some smaller and more delicate fruits.

A beautiful shaggy mane.  I ate one once, it was delicious, but then again so are most things fried in butter.

Blewits!  A fragrant and sweet smelling mushroom, often found in rings around here.

 

Here's the last of the amanitas.  This line of death caps (amanita phalloides) was along the side of the trail.  They haven't sprung up again, so it may be the last of "Death Cap Row" until spring.  One of most poisonous mushrooms in the world, death caps are enjoying a territory expansion thanks to modern human activity.  These mushrooms will melt your liver about 3 days after ingestion. 

 

The only amanita that I've seen recently is the prized amanita muscaria or fly agaric.  Hoping we'll see some fresh ones this week!

Core Rocks and Face Rocks

On good days, I get to balance my computer work with some trail work.   This trail was precariously located on the edge of an unstable and eroding slope before I moved it upslope and shored it up with a rubble wall. 

Working with stone is so satisfying, especially because it balances out too much time spent in front of the computer.   It's really grounding.  I've always wanted to work on a trail crew (a la Gary Snyder and Jack Kerouac)-- I thought I'd missed my opportunity after I turned 30 and no longer enjoyed living out of a backpack or my truck.   Nay, these days I get to work with stone and enjoy my recliner. 

The secret to a formal stone retaining wall (and to a lesser extend a rubble wall) is knowing how to use face rocks and core rocks.  Face rocks are the first large stones you place, some of which are buried into the soil below, which lean into the slope.  Core rocks are smaller stones that you fit behind the face rocks, Tetris style. 

Some face rocks are headers, and they extend into the core rock.  Others are spreaders, which are parallel to the length of the wall.  Tier by tier, face rocks backed by core rocks. 

There is something alchemical about working with stone.  Somewhere deep in my mind, a new philosophy is growing that has something to do with face rocks and core rocks.  Maybe also something about keeping your spreaders to a minimum.  Not sure yet, but it's reorganizing my brain, shoring up the slippery slope of consciousness with quartz and granite.

Solid.

Doubled Up Mushrooms

Mushroom season 2009 is in full fruit right now in coastal California. Here's some recent finds under the theme "Doubled up."


Above, a beautiful young fly agaric (amanita muscaria) surrounded by some red (rosy?) russulas.



And here a pine spike (chroogomphus rutilus) is pushing up against an old slippery jack (suillus brevipes).


And finally a russula (can Feral Kevin confirm or correct this?) getting fresh with another slippery jack.

I've seen destroying angels leaning into edible agaricus mushrooms too -- that's a deady combo that has probably resulted in some melted livers in the past.