The cool kids

are still talking about mushrooms. It is clearly that time of year. On our recent trip to the mountains, A, Booker and I found plenty, though not much we could identify as positively edible. Wildflowers, too:



We found Aspen boletes, which don't appear to be universally edible:





We also found this lovely fellow, at best guess, Russula emetica:





other various handsome fungi:















Here you see two puffballs, one having matured and the remains of the cap filled with water, one just appearing and still firm:



We had a few of the firm puffballs with our eggs for breakfast. I was wary of the Leccinum boletes, however. Though others eat them with enjoyment, the possibility of severe gastric distress was something I hadn't set a couple of days aside for. Perhaps a giant puffball or nice patch of king boletes remains in the future. Paying attention to mushrooms certainly opens up a whole other level of complexity in the woods- at your feet, mushrooms; fifty feet out, grouse, squirrels, other small critters; at the limit of sight, deer, coyotes, elk, and other wary species- you have to move slow or you'll miss everything!