I’m not sure what’s going on this year but parts of my yard are covered in mushrooms.
I could understand if the mushrooms were growing in the forest around my house, but these relatively big mushrooms are growing in the center of my yard in clumps. They’ve been turning black with time. I wonder what kind of mushroom they are, but obviously don’t have any intention of eating them.
Our house is surrounded by trees, many of the trees are oak trees. Our trees produce a lot of acorns. The acorns are currently covering the driveway, the deck, and the rest of the yard. Adam has a very specific place he has to park in order to not have the acorns dent his car.
You would think that the many squirrels and chipmunks in our vicinity would gobble them up, but I think the harvest is probably larger than even their gluttony.
I tried to make a pile of acorns to help the squirrels out but our pup seemed to think he should be helping himself to the nuts.
Soon those acorns will be covered in a dense pile of leaves. I hope the rodents stockpile them before it’s too late.
The one advantage to passing thunderstorms is that some amazing clouds often intermix with the thunderclouds. I captured these beauties while driving in Deerfield, New Hampshire.
I love going to New Hampshire’s 18 miles of coastline. I guess I’m a natural beachcomber. I spend a lot of time in the winter walking along the sandy beaches and I’m really excited to have Cooper to join me on future excursions.
Taking a dog to the beach in the summer time requires more logistics. Some of the beaches allow dogs but only after “beach hours”. Recently we have gone to York Beach which requires dogs to be on lead (no more than 15 feet) on the beach and after 6pm. The town of Rye allows dogs to be on the beach from 7 pm until midnight and they can be under voice control.
Cooper’s still getting used to the waves, but he loves chasing balls on the beach.
I have lived in states that border the Ocean for over 7 years now. And for many of those years I have visited beaches on a regular basis. From Maine to Cape Cod, I have always associated these flowers with the salt spray, the sound of waves and dogs and people running along the sand. I never knew what they were.
I recently listened to Anita Shreve’s Strange Fits of Passion as an audiobook. At one point, while describing a cottage on a cove in a remote part of Maine, the author mentions the cottage is surrounded only by “wild beach roses”. I decided to look up the plant to see if I had seen the flower before. Sure enough, the pretty pink, red and white flowers I have seen and known on the beaches of my adulthood are Beach Roses.
What surprised me most? They are not native to North America. They originate in Asia.
I’m not sure if these flowers that survive the sometimes brutal climate of the New England seaboard are planted as low maintenance ornamental plants along the coast or if they actually do grow wild now. But they are a beautiful addition to the coastal areas.
I’ve mostly written a post that I’m kind of excited about regarding Cooper. I want to do a good job on it because it’s something I’ve wanted to post about for a while regarding perception versus reality of poodles.
But I need to upload some supporting pictures to do so and right now I have to head to work. So here’s a filler post.
One of my favorite things about random walks in the woods is finding random objects on the ground to take pictures of. Take this feather, beautiful and random. It was in the middle of the woods in Pawtuckaway State Park. We’ve found lots of neat big feathers in that park. It helps that they have Turkeys and Turkey Vultures there. That reminds me, if I ever get a good picture of a turkey vulture I should write a post about the scare I gave one when I was bushwacking near the cliffs.
Random enough filler for everyone?
One of the reasons I love New Hampshire is how close I feel to nature. We spend a lot of time hanging out in the woods. I love getting close ups of all sorts of different things. I actually wish I had a Macro lens for the Pentax *ist, but I make do with what I have.
Some lichen on a Boulder
Mushrooms are always one of my favorites
An odd little man made pond in the woods
Some sort of little pink wildflowers
New Hampshire’s Official Wildflower: The Pink Lady’s Slipper
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