Finds while working in the garden yesterday.
Mushrooms in the strawberry bed, alyssum blooms, calendula blooms and seed pods, violet blooms, beet tops, cabbage leaves, chamomile blooms, broccoli seed pods… there’s some life in the garden yet this December!
All found along the trail down to the beach.
The sun came out today, so naturally Jasper dog and I had to go down to the beach to bask in it for a while! The mushroom gills are beginning to show their true colors now, literally!
Hastily gathered as the sun began to set.
The gills are sporting more color now! These are all the same types of mushrooms I found last week, but drained in color, presumably by the uncommon cold dry conditions we’ve had this season so far. But now as the weather has been the typical cool and wet of the season, color gills are appearing.
Today’s finds while weeding vines in a neighbor’s yard.
Appropriate finds for the next week of freezing night time temps!
Now the mushrooms are appearing, some several months later than usual and drained of their usual color. For example, the gills of the yellow-topped Stropharia amigua (the two darkest mushrooms in this medley) sport a mere blush of their usual deep lavender-grey color this year. And some of these taupe gilled-mushrooms (I don’t recall the name ATM) are usually a deeper tan/brown. So interesting! I have a decade of photographic islands medley documentation to refer back on now - September was my 10 year “islandaversary” - and this is the latest start and least prolific mushroom season I’ve experienced since my arrival out here.
This past weekend I went two islands over via a boat ride from my tiny island to the mainland, then hopped on the ferry to San Juan island. I vended my wares at the San Juan Island Flea Market and caught up with friends I hadn’t seen in a few years. By the end of the trip I was hoarse from talking so much and ready to be alone! The larger islands are so much busier than the little one I live on now! Today I’m recovering from the weekend whirlwind trip, followed by a mainland supply run yesterday for myself and a few island neighbors.
This morning’s finds while roaming the forest in my jammies.
Still not finding many mushrooms beyond white gills, but the recently fallen leaves are colorful! I found remnants of a bird having a bad day, but her/his feathers are a beautiful addition to today’s thankfulness of my surroundings.
Working on an alternate heat source.
The past few days I’ve been working on completing a project I began 2 years ago, only to be constantly sidetracked by more important build projects! But this is the winter the woodshop/my temporary home gets its woodstove installed! The interior bits are finished, save for some finish trim work. The exterior installation will have to wait for another day warmer than today’s 30F with 20MPH winds!
Finally finding a few more types of mushrooms here!
The fall mushroom season always seems to start out with little bursts of tiny white-gilled mushrooms and then progresses through the rainbow as the season unfolds. The season is 2 months later than usual, it’ll be interesting to see if all the different types make their appearance in the next few months, or if some will sit out fruiting this year. We shall see!
Jasper dog posing in front of the new/old french doors leading into the art studio side of the build.
There’s still work to be done to get these doors fully operational, but after 20 hours over 3 days they are both hanging straight and true! And now, thanks to the patience and help of a knowledgable neighbor, I have a basic understanding of installing french doors, which will come in handy for future projects. I’m off to indulge in pumpkin pie!
My neighbor routing the door hinge pockets while I stand on the jig we made.
The other day was a good mailshack day - all the parts I needed and ordered to complete the front door project came in by plane and boat. So today my neighbor with experience installing french doors came over for the second day of helping/showing me how to complete this project. Once the hinges were set, yet another neighbor came to help us hoist the heavy over-sized doors into place.
After we’ve done mine, I’ll be installing another set of the same french doors for another neighbor as a barter. We scored the old custom oversized doors from a remodeling project on the other side of the island several years ago, and now it’s finally time to put them in their new homes!
Finger’s crossed I’ll have a reveal of my new/old doors here tomorrow when they’re perfectly fitted! It’s too dark to do detail work past 5pm these days.
One of my favorite medleys in recent years. You can see/purchase the sticker here!
Well today it’s steady rain so I’m staying indoors working on installing a mini wood stove in my temporary shed quarters, making a pot of soup in the instant pot, and dreaming of mushroom foraging later this week! Here’s hoping today’s rain will help the mycelium fruit out in my usual island mushrooming spots!
Sunday afternoon task at a neighbor’s house.
Fire cleansing: yard debris, leaving behind the busy season, celebrating the slow, cold, dark, contemplative days of winter.
Usually mushrooms begin appearing in September, but this year the season is late. Found these gems in among my frosty garden plants this morning (from top to bottom):
Summer fern fronds
unknown mushrooms & coral lichen
snail shell on blewitt mushroom
orange peel fungus with nootka rose fronds
more unknown mushrooms surrounded by summer fern fronds
jackson pollack geranium leaf from the garden
Yay, looks like it’s finally time to explore the island’s forest trails and see what other treasures I can find!