filled with fungi

Well hello Fungi.

I finally made it out to Skidaway today, and what a day it was. This trip followed a morning of wonderous insight and proposed opportunities. Super inspired; and of course Skidaway only added to this.

While in Wy all summer, because the climate is so dry there, I wasn't presented with many a mushroom. (Except on my last hike in Death Canyon...which I'll get around to posting something from that great day...one day).

It was overcast and misty, the sky could have fallen on my at any moment, but I was headed in anyway. It was nice because everything was damp from the earlier rain...which means everything was much more vibrant. Everything looks better when it's wet. So,I walked into the woods and was SLAPPED in the face with the smell of sour (in a good way?) moist salt and FUNGUS. all over!

I took over 150 pictures today...hey it happens...


This was actually taken on my way out. Hey Mother Nature, I'm likeing this Renaissance composition...You know, with the triangle and all. yeah...

Before I get into the glorious world of fungi, I want to post a few other things I experienced today. Mostly just sweet sweet instances. ah :)


Like this. :) mmm I realize the importance of looking UP. Not just forward.

Also, on a side note while I'm thinking about it. The scariest thing ever is getting overly excited about something over there on that dead tree. So you go close to it to examine it and take a picture and as you start to stand up straight, still amazed, you realize that your HEAD WAS 6 INCHES FROM A SPIDER'S WEB. shit. that sucks. That's happened to me so many times. Then you get fascinated by it and have a spider photo shoot. :)...except I didn't do that today....anyway.



I don't think I'll ever get over this. Towering over me are huge oak trees with their limbs spread open and wide, decked and draped in Spanish Moss. My face bathing in the trickling fragmented sun rays that just touched all over the long hanging moss.



It's like they're playing Ring Around the Rosie...in slow motion.



So I don't know if I fully understand what's going on here. The spider web is holding rain. what?



Why did the boy throw the butter out of the window?



Hello fiber student! I'm interested in you. ;)

Now for the infamous tree bark segment which will seg-way right into the FUNgiiii section YEAH



Oh you'd like to see complementary colors in nature you say? here you go sir. (image NOT manipulated. btw...)



Papa Tree bends, his bark wrinkles. Oh so gracefully.



Check out that color. Just look at her. She's ready for a tea party don't you think? So elegant.



Oh oh OH so much going on! This reminds me of barnacles. Check out that blast of slices framing those baby wrinkles.



I mean..... Sometime's im just overwhelmed by how great something is...that I don't even want to begin to comment or describe it. This is one of those moments. dkfjsdkjf;adsj LOOK AT THAT




Excuse me Sir, You ordered the Fungi Sampler correct?

Now begins the Fuuuuuun. gi. So, I decided that instead of just admiring these great beauties of the world, I should really start to educate myself on what I'm looking at. So I'm attempting to identify what I can with what I have. Here we go.

I'm most certain that These next fellas are trametes versicolor, common name: Turkey Tail.



These guys were EVERYWHERE! They are a type of fungi called polypore. NOW I know what to call them.



They like dead and decomposing trees.



You'd think, or at least I'd think, that to touch they'd feel thin, dry, and flaky. Like a dried leaf. WRONG. They're cold, moist, leathery, and fleshy feeling. Sooooooo good.



I think if they had their own tv show, their theme song would be something along the lines of "We are Family..."




Next on the trail of identifiable fungi is the tyromyces chioneus. I'm not sure what his common name is. But he, too, is a polypore.



I'm not 100% sure he is who I say he is. But it's what I think he is.



I spotted him hanging out all alone, which is what I read these guys like to do.



And the description of this textured crater-ous epidermis sound correctamundo.


Now this next guy.... could easily not be who I say he is. There are a few images online that look similar and some that look completely different. The only way to be sure would be to do a spore print. And that's not going to happen. So take this "with a grain of salt." Ladies and Gentleman, gyroporus purpurinus He'd be considered a bolete. :)




:)

For the next guys...unfortunately at the moment, I am unable to identify them. But, none the less, they do exist.



A group of yellow gilled mushrooms. :)



A fungus on a fungus.




velvet-y


yes please.


We'll just call this one Tina Turner.
But on a different note....DO YOU SEE HOW INSANE THIS IS?!?!?!?! ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh



Dear favorite (above), I am silently freaking out. I love you. a lot.


Ball of lichen^


Heron?


good day.

it is 4:30 pm

It's been really dreary here lately, and I think I love it. It's misty, rainy, windy, cloudy, and there is no sunshine.

it's refreshing.

I've been taking pictures of my food lately.

ooey gooey tomato eyes.
I noticed at work the other day, that a lot of the servers say "ooey gooey butter cake" I guess it makes it sound yummier to add ooey. ooey gooey buggers mmmm. Ooey gooey nuclear waste YUM. Ooey Gooey pooie. ...just seein' if it works?



Wouldn't it be sweet to be plankton-size and trek across this mountainous bunch of blackberry scone crumbs?



Also, powder based chai is gross.

Also, this is a cloud hugging a mountain. Opposites do attract?

On our way to Static Peak in Death Canyon.

To sum it all up, I have nothing really important to share.
Have a nice day :)

rip Death Canyon trees :/

All around us nature is constantly growing, morphing, changing, viiiiiiibrating and reproducing. We don't see it as it happens because the change happens in small ways....but it's happening and it is constant.

As I hiked and hiked in Grand Teton National Park this summer, I began noticing some of nature's...sex-uality. There were these trees, the White Bark Pine, who demonstrated just how sexual nature is. These trees had the most character out of all the flora I witnessed this summer. They made me happy. They seemed like a community just as unique and diverse as humans. They all had their own personality (not all were sexual but they all seemed to have this naked-ness to them...yes, I understand that they are trees and that trees don't wear clothes but I'm still sticking to that statement: they all seemed to have this naked-ness to them.)

First, a close look at their epidermis. mmmmm. The way I'd notice these trees was by the little bits of yellow and red mixed in. Though, Buford and I did notice that some of the trees I thought were White Bark may not have been....because of the varying pine needles... hmm. anyway.



The momma of them all, the one who started me noticing the physique of these trees, was spotted in Paintbrush Canyon. (after Jake gave me the motivation to power hike [by the way, hiking to the tune of "Big Rock Candy Mountain" makes life easier.] butthole.) :) anyway. yeah. naked momma.




I think these guys were in Cascade Canyon.....hug...?




Result from above. She lives in the Rockefeller Preserve. She's expecting twins!




This is Mr. Lazy Pants. He dwells near Inspiration Point.



He's a little tea pot short and sto......wait.......what? Rockefeller Preserve.



aaaaaaaaaaaaand this just makes me happpyyyyyyyyyy! This was right by Hidden Falls. mmmmroots.

There's a legit National Beard and Mustache Competition

Most people will probably think that this post is disgusting. I think it's really interesting/odd that when something that was once apart of our own body becomes detached, we are repulsed. WHY? We touch it, we feel it, we LIVE it every day. It's just...us. So why is it weird? Why is it gross? I don't get it.

skin:

So ever since I got back from Wyoming my feet-skin has rebelled against me. Maybe it's committing suicide because it refuses to live anywhere else but the beautiful WY. Or maybe it's trying to be symbolic...you know shedding anew. Whatever the case it's still peeling and going strong.





hair:

I recently buzzed my curly locks off. Not necessarily for any particular reason. It grows back and it feels great. Everyone should do it. Again, it grows back. But anyway, instead of discarding and wasting what my dear body put energy into growing, I decided to recycle. :)

I blended some raw wool with my hair and made yarn :D







By the way, I would not recommend a people-hair scarf or sweater...itchy.

I have...

an etsy.

ambrosiusearthworm.etsy.com



it's pretty bare, but it's a work in process.

With humidity comes new face-bump buddies.

This thing we call life is quite immaculate; it's palatial [;)], it's grand, it's hilarious.
I just keep laughing (which ironically makes me cry a little). I had the best summer of my life in Wyoming and spent it with some of the best people who have entered my life. I've learned to be more patient, and my eyes have been opened even wider to the even more endless possibilities there are in life. But, I think the biggest thing I've learned (and will probably have to continue to remind myself) is that...you just have to laugh. Experiences in life will happen (obviously), whether they are good or terrifying, they ARE going to happen. So you have to deal with it....and the only way to successfully do that is to find the good in it, find the humor. laugh.

oh it's wonderful. and it's terrifying. but that's the wonderful part about it.

I miss Wyoming. But I realize that I'm always going to miss something. [ just like I missed the South and everyone in it when I was there.] Everything will end. But it's because of that ending that we know that it existed at all.


On top of Table Mountain. ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...