Mushrooms….Friends or Foes?

This week, a friend and I attended a workshop titled Fungi: Friends or Foes of our Forest System at the MacLaren ART Center.

Here, we learned that the very flavourful Honey Mushroom is a foe!

We have, in the past, harvested these tasty morsels with friends, dried them, and enjoyed them in many a yummy dish.

But, it turns out that they are a foe, not a friend of the forest. The good news is that we now feel free to harvest them to our hearts’ content. No more worries about leaving lots behind.

The Honey Mushroom not only grows on dead and decaying wood, but it also feasts on live trees, thereby harming the forest. Fortunately, a rival fungi has been discovered to combat the destruction caused by our little Honey.

🍄 🍄 🍄 🍄 🍄 🍄 🍄 🍄 🍄

Another interesting tidbit I learned is that SHOES are now being made from mushrooms!!!!! Yes, SHOES!!!!

Also, BRICKS! Mushrooms, mixed with straw and other like items, are being used to build a more environmentally friendly brick!

Just imagine, for a moment, the third little pig building his house with bricks made of mushrooms. A mushroom brick using the straw from the first little pig’s house as a mix. Then, prehaps having helped himself to sticks from the second little pig’s house to frame the windows and the doors.

Oh my!

How much fun would the big bad wolf have had!

Especially if he loved mushrooms!!!!!

The Rain

The Rain.

The Rain, fell.

The Rain, fell, upon the ground,

Upon the ground.

The Rain, fell,

The Rain.

Turn your rainstick, around, and up and down.

A Bearded Birdhouse

Once upon a bearded birdhouse 
Socks had been hung out to dry.
He was shaking out the rug 
When dust got in his eye.

He cried to his momma 
He cried to his pop. 
Nothing they tried 
Could make the pain stop. 

Along came a pretty lady
With a hop, hop, hop.
She spotted the tiny tear
And decided she must stop. 

She kissed the wet cheek 
She pecked the wet ground. 
Up popped a juicy worm 
Which she quickly found.
 
They all had dinner 
Their dishes wiped clean.
The dust eventually settled 
A tear was nowhere to be seen.

This is not a true story 
Just a bit of nonsense 
About a bearded birdhouse 
Filled with incense!

Cracks and Crevices.

cracks and crevasses

crinkled and cotton

small spaces

long forgotten

a seed is planted

it’s root go deep

it becomes a part of us

a part, we want to keep

it is not an accident

it is not luck

these tiny places

are in the largest

part, of my heart. MT

A grand old tree supporting new sprouts.

Ring the bells that still can ring

Forget your perfect offering

There is a crack, a crack in everything

That’s how the light gets is. LC

No Mow May….

Forget-me-nots, and other pretty flowers.

Our lawns grow so much more than grass and dandelions!

In defense of the lovely yellow dandelion.

1. It’s highly nutritious.

2. It contains potent antioxidants.

3. It may help fight inflammation.

4. It may aid blood sugar management.

5. It may reduce cholesterol

6. It may lower blood pressure.

7. It may promote liver health.

8. It may aid weight loss.

9. It may support healthy digestion.

10. It may boost immune health.

Things to make from the lovely dandelion.

1. Dandelion jelly – done

2. Dandelion wine

3. Dandelion bread – done

4. Dandelion honey – done

5. Dandelion syrup – done

6. Dandelion cookies – done

7. Dandelion tea – done

8. Dandelion coffee – done

9. Dandelion gummies

10. Dandelion salve – done

11. Dandelion salad – done

12. Dandelion soup

13. Dandelion quiche

14 Use your imagination

Food for the birds, food for the bees. Food, a plenty, when the lawn has been mowed when No Mow May is over.

Reduce your carbon footprint!

Pussy Willows

Pussy willows 

Cattails

Runny jam and spiders.

Sunshine 

Snowflakes 

Raindrops and showers.

Gravel roads

Spiderwebs

Earwigs on flowers.

Troubadours

Trumpets

Crazy horses trotting.

Tulip bulbs

Hunger years

Small children crying.

Clouds above

Heaven above

God's arms open wide.

The Grooming Goose…

Amongst the cattails

In the spring

Nature pops up

New life begins.

Looking at the World

Looking at the world 
through rose coloured glasses. 
As the winds and clouds roll by.
Like thoughts and ideas,
they make smooth passes. 
My feelings;
like dots in the sky.

Surrounding yourself pleasantly 
is difficult sometimes. 
The flowers and the trees, 
are not always in rhyme. 
My expectations are like chimes, 
in what a world finds fair. 
So different is the light 
that my daydreams share.

Celebrating Earth Day

Three small children 
Bring home
Three small pines.

The trees were planted in a line.
Side by side, the children grew.
Side by side, grew the trees.

That first earth day,
It has created a beautiful background. 
For so many
a wonderful thing.

Family gatherings,
Children playing,
Music in the yard.
A beautiful couple
saying, 'I do'.

From a seed,
into a sapling.
From a sapling,
into a tree.
From a tree,
into a stump.
From a stump,
into earth.
To  provide nourishment, 
for the next tiny seed.