Mushrooms

This morning I went out to get the paper. Yes, I know that 99% of the news I read in the paper I've already read about on-line or heard on the TV news the night before, but I like reading the paper. Holding it in my hands, shaking it out, checking out what advise I disagree with that Annie's Mailbox has dished out and the few comics I follow...LuAnn, For Better or Worse, Zits. First thing I noticed outside the door was a small mushroom.


















It was peeking out from the 2" of redwood litter that covers our dirt & gravel drive. This little baby was right outside the door and in a space that never receives direct sunlight. Under the 150' redwood trees and near the house, always in shadow, cool and damp. It looks like a normal, buy it in any store variety mushroom, but I doubt it. We get mushrooms growing around the house every Fall (and other times of the year), lots of different varieties and often different from year to year. They appear overnight. Nothing one day and BOOM! A big mushroom overnight.













Out in the front grass I found some others...bigger, irregular in shape and very low to the ground. They varied in size from saucer to luncheon plate. I've included a shot of the underside of one bad boy.













Now don't get me wrong....I enjoy eating mushrooms, very much so. BUT I'm kind of creeped out by finding them at my house. I don't leave them to mature, kicking them over when I find them. Mushrooms are the fruiting bodies of fungus growing deep in the ground. So kicking over the mushroom doesn't get rid of the fungus, but it makes me feel as if I'm doing something to rid my personal space of rot. I took a tour of the front and side yard and found many of the yellowed plate-style mushrooms, one
















of the tiny button type and then found this foul-looking blobby thing. I've seen them before but not for a few years. They look like something boiled over in the pot, slimy and yucky. Their stem is very short and they hug the ground.
I haven't seen any black one yet this year, or the tall white ones with orange spots (the kind you'd see a troll hiding behind!)--those are deadly poisonous, I know. There is one kind that we'll see on the drive....one day you'll see what appears to be a gopher mound and POOF! A mushroom the next day.
Hmmmm maybe we'll have grilled portobello mushrooms on ciabatta bread tonight.....