Fungus Among Us

The rains have stopped! It is still quite cloudy but as of 10:15 a.m. the rain finally stopped. Our mountain was touched with snow this morning as well - it's quite chilly outside. At the conclusion of the rain spell, I grabbed Mattie and my camera and went mushroom hunting in our yard. I found some great specimens (all poisonous I'm sure).

These little "button" type mushrooms are all over the yard.

This was a single, with a skinny stump. Pretty camel color.

Not the prettiest fungus out there, but neat. Note the light colored ring around the edges. It's already started to decompose it looks...
These guys were right under our swing set. Really a nice deep orange color, and they're medium sized mushrooms.

These ones looked like truffles (but they aren't). They're very rounded and very dark colored.

I found this white one already flipped over. It was the coolest one so far.

Fallen leaves from our maple tree.

The only animal I could find was this single typical garden variety slug on our doorstep, munching on some old flower.

I was going to leave for Carnation at lunchtime to pick up Scott the herding dog since our trial is this weekend. However, HWY 203 is shut down for awhile due to flooding. I'm confident I can get Scott tonight or tomorrow but I really wanted to just get him today as it would be easiest. The herding trial is on Saturday in Roy, WA. It's classified as a "fun" trial for members of the Washington Stockdog Handlers Association but I think it will be great practice for me prior to my "real" trial on the 29th. I think I'm ready. However, even with the most experienced dog out there (which Scott probably will be), a trial run can still be disasterous!

Remember, it's not the dog, it's the handler. That's my mantra.