Mushroom Walk

I had planned a spur of the moment mushroom unit this week and had hoped to spend a little time each day working on observing, sketching, making prints, doing a collage, and then going on a mushroom hunt.  With tutoring up in Portland (fortunately, Phil was able to take Brighton to this), piano, Awanas, 4-H, a group piano lesson/recital, and regular speech therapy...we just didn't get to it.  I did pack a lunch and we went on a walk at my parent's house to collect mushrooms to bring home and hopefully sketch over the weekend.  It was a chilly day and rather gloomy but I was glad that the children had a chance to run and climb trees even if they weren't as focused on mushroom hunting as I would have hoped.

We have been eyeing this big batch of mushrooms that we see when we turn down the road to my parents and I had been meaning to photograph them.  



After lunch, it was time to walk and explore.







Then run and climb trees.

Once I got everyone back in the car, I took just a couple of minutes to photograph persimmons.  I love persimmon trees in the fall, the fruit is so beautiful clinging to the bare branches and such a colorful contrast to the darkening colors of winter.






This picture is rather gross.  We saw a ton of mushrooms under a batch of pine trees on our way to get milk.  The middle mushroom has a cup shape filled with water and drowned maggots and just what is that gelatinous brown goo on the left?

Our collection


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