Updates and Mushrooms

There's only one thing to do this time of the year: Look for mushrooms. They are brought to us by the persistent gray, rainy, foggy, and wet weather of December. The Sierra Mountain range is 138% of normal snowfall now. I haven't even checked how far out of average we are for rainfall, but we are absolutely soggy here.

This time of the year I go out in search of color. For me, mushrooms are to early winter as flowers are to spring. That beautiful burst of life out of the brown earth. I don't go looking for edibles, I go looking for species, for variety, for shapes and sizes. Spongy bottoms or gills, stems and veils, pointy caps or round? They're all pushing up through pine needles and rain-soaked leaves. It just makes me happy to find them. Six days before winter solstice and the crazy low angle of the sun, I take that happiness how ever I can get it. The photo collage above is of the mushrooms I've seen around the house the past few days. The big one in the middle though is from last winter. A beautiful oldie, but goodie photo.

The local mushrooms that have really caught my attention are these. Out of an old oak stump in the yard, these mushrooms grow in clumps from every crevice and crack. Roger pointed out a new crop growing where he had dug into the ground for the foundation of the sauna. He uncovered part of the oak's root system, and these mushrooms sprang out of there, like they'd just been waiting for the low light and the rain. This perfect moment.

In other news and updates: We did receive a reimbursement check in the full amount from the dealership. We have decided to take that money and buy a woodstove insert for the fireplace. The propane gas insert really does not heat the house in any appreciable way, so we've started looking at woodburning ones. Quite exciting, and way more practical than a useless, fraudulent extended warranty. Win-win!

Bonsai the kitty cat has been responding to the pureed pumpkin lately. I won't go into the messy details, but let's just say that it works incredibly well as a feline laxative. I put two teaspoons in his wet food with plenty of added warm water to make his favorite gravy, and yum yum yum. He's happy, and he's not constipated. Win-win!

Roger starts his fifth round of chemo therapy Wednesday. He took two weeks off to recover from a persistent upper respiratory cough and that foggy-headed chemo brain. He does feel some better, but not completely well. This part of the update is neutrally noted.

Wordless Wednesday: What We Saw On Monday

We were surprised and thrilled to see dragonflies and butterflies so early in February. The black mushroom is a Fluted Black Elfin Saddle. The shiny golden mushroom has not been identified yet. The lake, as far as we know, has no name. There is no news on the housing front. The weather and these sights have balanced our ongoing disappointment.

Snow and The MRI Saga

Let's see, where were we? Ah yes, Roger was scheduled for an MRI and the weather had taken an incredible turn toward deep winter. Wednesday was the stormiest for rain, and by then we were topping out at eight inches for a four-day total. The wind was gusting up to 60 mph, and the temperatures hovered at 36 F most of the day. We kept waiting for the snow to start falling. We thought if it would just snow we could cancel the MRI appointment (our not-so-secret desire). But that didn't happen. What did happen is that we lost our internet, telephone, and cable connection at around 10:00 am. So even if the MRI had to be canceled, we couldn't call to do it. We drove over to the food co-op for their free wi-fi i and good cell phone reception. There was no cancellation, so we drove over to the Diagnostic Lab at Roger's appointed time.
ROGER SEZ: i learned how to relax and ignore the pain of dental work when i was young because i hated fainting, or almost fainting, from the consideration of needles. not the pain. just the thought. i have had root canals without novacain. i could faint now if i imagine having a needle in me. i was quite pleased some 4 years ago when i got through a blood draw with nary a trace of lightheadedness. i even watched the tech switch vials to get more. i was impressed with me.

now i was to get an mri of my shoulder. i ruptured my left proximal biceps tendon, which sounds awful but is not really because the upper biceps tendons have two attachment points and so i still have one left. my arm still works fairly well. no reaching up and back. the diagnosing surgeon suggested an mri to see if my rotator cuff was torn.

the intake nurse tells me that i will need an injection in my shoulder for an mri. actually two, a shot of lidocaine to numb my shoulder so a doctor can, while watching on live fluoroscope, insert a loooong needle into my joint to insert dye. maybe she didn't really draw out that word "long," but i heard it that way.

so i remove my shirts and put on the silliest medical gown i've ever seen. big goofy flaps on the shoulders. then they lead me down the hall to radiology and i sit there ignoring the tray laid out with needles and vials or inspecting the several sorts of hi-tech machinery while the radiologist is called from somewhere else. my breathing is a bit off by now. after some years the doc arrives and explains the whole thing again. maybe i shouldn't have watched the fluoroscope screen while he marked my shoulder where the looong needle would be inserted. the lidocaine injection was sharp but brief. now i'm staring intently at some machine screws just above me, trying to breathe normally. now i'm asking for a cold wet cloth on my head. now i'm sweating profusely. when they ask if i'd like to stop and do the MRI some other time i gladly say yes. my bp is the lowest i've seen, 110/54. the nurse insists that i lay flat for a bit. that sounds good. after a while i'm escorted out to robin. we laugh. ROGER FINIS
When he came into the waiting he still looked ghostly pale. I thought he had completed the tests quickly, so I leapt up saying, "Wow, great job. That was fast." He said, "Nope, didn't get it done. I passed out."

We had another very deep rollicking good laugh about it on the drive home, that is until we turned up the two-lane mountain road to the house. While we were in town, it had snowed about an inch or two at the slightly higher elevation, and the roads were almost too slick to be navigated. There was a snow plow a couple of cars ahead of us, but it wasn't clearing the roads of all the slickness. Several cars were spinning and struggling up the hill, and we became just one in a line of roaring engines and cars moving an inch at a time. Then we were stuck. Roger tried to put the snow chains on the car, but he couldn't get them to work right. A very nice young man stopped to help, but he couldn't get the chains on either. Luckily he did manage to direct traffic around us, as we were blocking the lane heading up the hill. It was disconcerting in so many ways. So, Roger jumped back into the car and decided to give it one more try. We inched and inched our way to the house, which was only about a quarter of a mile further. We made it. Whew.
Since Wednesday, we've gotten nearly ten inches of snow and lost power once more. It's been snowing lightly and steadily nearly everyday. Everyone we meet and tell that we're looking to buy a house at the 3000+ elevation, always responds, "You're going to get a lot of snow up there." We didn't exactly believe them until now. Yup, totally true. The snow is here, and from the looks of it, it's here to stay. So, now we get to see two of our favorite things together, mushrooms and snow, how lucky is that? And finally, Roger decided since he wouldn't have surgery no matter what the tests revealed, he wouldn't reschedule the MRI anyway. All is well in our very snowy white world.

Winter Days

We sit on comfy cushions on the floor in front of the wood stove. Our books and laptops spread around us. This is how we spend our winter days when there is rain and wind. We're expecting a week of wild weather. The forecasters (those drama queens and doomsayers) are gleefully predicting mudslides in southern California and disaster deluges with shameless delight. We are always amazed by the times we are living in.
We venture out whenever there is break in the weather. Fortunately there really are times in winter here when the temps break 60 degrees and the sun pours like honey for the bees that have come out as well. We were surprised to see a pretty good swarm of these guys buzzing around some fine fresh puddles from the most recent rains.
Our walks along the Loma Rica trail have been sweetly serenaded by ruby-crowned kinglets and mountain chickadees. Lately, though, they've all been moving way to fast for me and the camera. So, I've been focusing on things that just don't move at all, like scat. Not sure who left this behind, but there is a lot of it all over the woods here. Any and all guesses are welcome.

The other thing that keep catching our eyes is the amazing abundance and diversity of fungus here. We simply cannot walk outside without spotting some new mushrooms springing up everywhere. Here's a little rundown of our latest finds:


Winter has been good and mild so far. We know there's supposed to be plenty of snow here, and suspect that it's only a matter of time. Meanwhile, we read and hike and fantasize how much some things look like others.
Doesn't this remind you of a sand dollar too?

When Fallen Leaves Rise

We have had a serious case of cabin fever lately. Cloudy, rainy, foggy, and all manner of weather that is simply not conducive to lazy strolls down wooded paths. We hang out in front of the wood stove reading anything we can get our hands on, or playing word game after word game on Shockwave.com. Some of those games are utterly ridiculous and others are ridiculously addictive. Hours pass.
I notice that the cat is as bored as we are. We let him outside often, but don't let him go off of the deck. The yard has no fence, and Bonsai is not very good at remembering his limitations. So, he just sniffs the air to get a sense his world. He does have a very fine vantage point from the deck where he watches Western Gray Squirrels manically chase each other, or where he has a regular hissing match with a neighbor's cat that comes in the yard to flaunt his freedom.
On a surprising warm Saturday afternoon with sunny skies, I decided to take the cat out to the yard so he could explore his world from ground level. The first thing I noticed was this group of mushrooms. So, I ran into the house to get the camera, thinking I'd photograph all the mushrooms I could find.
I was suddenly on a mission, and it felt damned good! I called to Roger to come out and look for mushrooms with me. So the three of us (Bonsai, Roger, and I) went searching. It's an interesting thing hunting for mushrooms in the leaf and pine needle litter of winter. They give such great clues, pushing up through the hard ground, the soft wet leaves, the dark rich loam.
They are winter's beautiful flowering bodies with a rich array of colors, shapes, and sizes. They are tiny yellow and gargantuan mauve; they are fleshy orange and deliciously chocolate. They thrive on the very weather that drives us indoors, to grow and flourish. We were completely knocked out by their abundance, and ran around the front and back yards looking everywhere for them. Each find more impressive and exciting than the last. But most especially we simply loved finding them as they broke through the ground in their journey to disperse their spores. It's merely their cycle of asexual reproduction, but it's so incredibly sensual to see.

(Click on the top image. I made a little poster of all the mushrooms we saw in about 25 minutes in the yard.)