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.

A Lot of Rain

So, where I live is known to receive twice as much rainfall as Seattle. Typically, Seattle gets an average of 60 inches of rain a year - in the beautiful Snoqualmie Valley, it's around 120 inches. That's a lot of rain. Having grown up in the Valley though, I'm used to it. I always appreciated the frequent dry days we would have in the Winter when I lived in Seattle and Bellevue.

Last week, I think it rained maybe four inches in one night. Tonight, reports indicate we'll be getting between 2-7 inches of rain overnight. However, the weekend looks to be nice and partially sunny!

Flooding isn't a big concern for our home - we live on a hill. However, high winds are also predicted tonight and tomorrow. This scares me a bit. Last year, we hadn't even made a payment on our home yet (we moved in October) and a tree fell on our house during a freak-wind storm. Nothing major was damaged, but we did lose a shed, some shingles, the little chimney and a couple of lawn chairs.

What I do like about the rain is that my car looks clean. And, the oddest looking mushrooms pop up in our yard. I failed to get pictures of the fungus but I noted 4 different species in our lower yard after the last heavy rain (all were non-edible). I'll have to go out tomorrow and check to see if we have more.

Jerill is coming home late from work tonight so I'm meeting him at the NB Bar and Grill -we eat there about once every 10 days. It's our favorite all-American food place in the Valley. But, appraently a new all-American type place is opening soon just a block or so away.

Our favorite Chinese food place here is Got Rice in Snoqualmie. Favorite Mexican joint goes to Ana's up on Snoqualmie Ridge. Best fast-food - Arby's, hands down. However, don't waste your time on the new Fried Macaroni on the Arby's menu -- we tried it and it was just 'okay.' And of course, best Japanese food has to go to the Snoqualmie Casino (it's the only place in town that serves sushi).

Ciao!