This mushroom sprouted up in the yard this week.
Mushroom, newly sprouted
That’s not terribly unusual, as we have mushrooms all over the place. I just thought this one was particularly well-formed. Then today when I went out, it had changed:
Sproing!
It opened up like an umbrella. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen mushrooms that looked like these, and I also was aware the the ring around the stem could be used to help identify the species. But what I did not know is where that ring comes from. I think it’s pretty obvious from these two photos – the edge of the umbrella tears away from the ring.
A little while after I took this second photo, David came outside and pointed out the change. I guess it struck him too. I went to show him the ring (which he had noticed), and when I touched it, I found that it was not connected to the stem at all! It slides up and down the stem quite easily.
Whooda thunk it?
I collected a couple more tablespoons of berries tonight too, and made another (failed) attempt at recording the frog barks. I got a pretty decent haul of blackberries (for this place anyhow), and I could have had more blueberries, but I figure they ought to ripen a bit more first. I guess I should do as much picking as I can on Sunday, because the next week is Honors Week for our Pathfinder Club.
I like to start the Pathfinder year with Honors Week. We meet each night for three hours (or so) and work on an honor – start to finish. We have to be careful about which honors we offer though so that we actually can finish. We open it up to anyone who wants to have some fun, whether they want to join Pathfinders, check us out, or just learn something about a (hopefully) interesting subject. It’s free. For new members, they get the opportunity to earn five honors right off the bat so they don’t have to walk around with an empty sash.
This year we’re offering these:
- Bones, Muscles, and Movement
- Kites
- Communications (semaphores)
- Paper Quilling
- Spiders
I’m going to teach Communications. I guess I need to study it a bit first though! David suggested and offered to teach Spiders, but he has still not finished last year’s school work. Neither has Jonathan, but there’s hope that he might soon. David is still pretty far behind though. I told them both at the beginning of the summer that they would not be participating in Pathfinders until they finished their school work. I was sure hoping it wouldn’t come to that, but it’s looking more and more like it will. My good friend (and former Pathfinder Club director) Cheryl remarked “that’s tough love.” I don’t know how many times I’ve heard that phrase, but up until now, I always thought it meant being tough on the kid. But man – this is going to be tough on ME. I have to follow through on the threat, and it is not easy to do.
David will surely miss Honors Week, and he might also miss our first two campouts. I sure hope he puts his nose to the grindstone! If he can’t go, I’m going to miss him!
