Afternoon Timber Walk

Today turned out to be another beautiful day! Extremely windy, but temperature wise we had another absolutely gorgeous day!!!

This morning I removed the memory card from my trail camera to check the activity and  took some pictures on my other camera before reaching the trail camera.So I ended up bringing both cards home before lunch to transfer pictures to the computer.

This afternoon before the day got totally gone I headed back to get the memory card situated in the trail camera for the night.

Thinking back to a couple of my trips last week I saw turkeys in fields to the south and got some distance shots - might decide to share them later. It probably would be a good idea for me to put more time in between visits to pick-up the memory card. Too much traffic might be causing the turkeys to seek more privacy elsewhere, because I haven't seen them for a few days. All is quiet where they are concerned.

Trout Lily

Last week I saw the mottled leaves for the White Trout Lily erupting out of the ground and remembered a post by Casey Harn at Wandering Owl Outside. He has moved over to The Countryside Round now...still enjoy his posts when he has time to publish.

Turkey Vulture

The Turkey Vultures came back a couple of weeks ago. I told you I would keep you informed of their return, they seem to be one of indicators that the weather should remain good.

I didn't have my camera in hand this morning, or I would have had a picture of one riding low on a thermal over the house.

Last year I had some good photo ops with one that I will post some time in the future.

On my walk this afternoon I caught an extremely sweet scent wafting on the stiff winds - I would prefer the poetic lilt of gentle breezes, but that wouldn't describe the West winds at 18 gusting to 26.

The trees have been rocking all day - The Ides of March?

Timber Violet

Antler Shed

Kneeling on a deer trail to get pictures of the two White Trout Lillies, I wasn't concentrating on anything else. Sadie came up beside me, that is when I looked to my right. Another shed! Wouldn't you just know it, after I had quit looking for them. This one is really a victim of chewing.

I brought it back to the house to see if it matched anything I already had in my inventory. No, it doesn't seem to correspond to those already in my possession...

The trail camera should prove a valuable tool this summer. Maybe, I will get to see the owners of the sheds left behind.

Virginia Bluebell

All the flowers in bloom now are leading up to another yearly event, that of morel mushroom hunting. The only flower yet to open up is the Mayapple. I am told that is another flower that helps indicate the right conditions for the search to begin.

We need more rain to get the mushrooms to pop. The heat is already here...

Timber Life Spring Fungus Review

The mighty Morel has finally arrived at Timber Life. The Morel season always seems to get a late start here in our timber. No matter where I look on our property during the prime hunting seasons elsewhere, not one little morsel becomes evident to the eye.

I have searched on different occasions, in different locations, at different times of the day...The way I became aware that the mushrooms were in waiting was mowing my yard, I found three. One was at the foot of an Oak tree and two at the foot of a big old Red Elm tree. That was my "AHA!" moment.

Silly me! I didn't stop mowing then and go search like I should have. Instead I continued my work. Once I decided to go look, I located them in a spot where most of our finds occur once they start popping. If I had gone earlier in the day I may have been able to catch them in an edible condition.



Hubby took his turn looking for some tasty treats after work once he discovered I had started finding them. In addition he pulled a brown oyster mushroom from it's hiding place. Again the morels were beyond edible so today maybe close to our last hope of finding some to saute.

This is one example of what I found a while back for the Brown Oyster mushroom just getting a colony started. Other colonies exist but we haven't harvested them for food, just getting more interested in seeing what is available in our little eco-system.

The weather was fantastic today - the garden called after some more mowing was done.

If anymore Morels popped I didn't see them after my mid-morning search. Maybe next year... ;)

Joining the Morel Mushroom Hunters

Ahhh, 4:00 in the afternoon rolled around yesterday. The bird sound went off on the wall clock and Sadie headed for the door to go outside. I pulled myself away from the Office Professional Word 2007 individual studies I have been working on...Away we went! This week,the week before Mother's Day, is usually the week we start seeing morels here,then it seems to end abruptly at that point, or we stop looking. It took me a while to find them. I went to the place that has been the most productive since we moved here and started searching. As you can see they are hiding out of view. I removed some vegetation before snapping a couple of pictures. The timber has been holding moisture, a down slope from the tillable ground has brought the water to the surface . Sadie and I felt pretty good after our romp in the woods. She found the water and had a good mud-pack going on;I found some mushrooms to put on the table for supper. What a great way to end the day?!? ;)