10/29/17

Sponge and Biscuit

Adventure Location:  North Alabama

Tonight the Teams have to thank Granny J (http://walkingprescott.blogspot.com/) again for helping us in the early years. OFM Adventures will soon be starting its eleventh year. Granny J took the time to teach the Teams to look and SEE EVERYTHING. Or at least attempt to. Following Granny J’s teaching means a slow walk for sure. It also means a great and fun walk. From seeing a daytime meteor streak across the sky to noticing an ant running from a stream of water coming from a hose laying on the concrete. It all counts.

The Teams were in a down mood so the OFM took us for a walk in the sun and shade by the lake. The day was nice and pictures were every where. As we walked along a path we stride on often, the OFM slowed us down. Let us GrannyJ this stretch of the trail. The Teams thought that was a great idea. So the camera was put at the ready and we were looking at the grand view because it was grand. Suddenly the OFM stopped us. Look small also Team.

Lo and behold we were about to pass up a neat sight. At the base of a tree next to the path was a small group of fungi that were interesting. And they had a surprise we did not see until editing the photographs! It was a mood improving moment.

This is the fungi that caught the OFM’s attention first. It is very big. Notice it grew around a loose leaf at the upper left. Then on the center right it has grown around a stick. The OFM toe is in the picture so you can see the size of this monster. It was about nine inches in diameter. The height must have been at least six inches. The honey combing of the head was really dramatic. We named it the “Sponge Mushroom”.




As the teams started to back away, the OFM exclaimed “Oh My, check these out”. There were two more interesting fungi around back so to speak. We carefully stepped around the tree and brush to find these two different shaped fungi. We finally got a decent picture to bring back to the Castle. These were about eight inches tall and four inches in diameter. They got named the “Biscuit Fungi”. Nope we did not try eating them. But we did encounter a few briar prickles getting back to the trail.




That was a great find by looking small as we walked. But the OFM got another surprise as he processed the first photo with the computer. Hiding over to the lower right of the first picture was another fungi. During the process of cropping the original frame, this small fungi jumped right out at him looking like a small owl standing on a stick. It is somewhat out of focus since the focus was on the first fungi. We wish we had noticed the “owl” while we were there to get a better picture.




Granny J’ing is just another good way of trying to have tooooo much fun.


No comments:

Post a Comment