Today was a beautiful crisp bright fall day. We took a hike yesterday with the apprentices to Chapel Hill Falls. It was glorious we looked at mushrooms. I am excited about a new edible mushroomidentified a new edible mushroom- I do not ever eat mushrooms when I newly identify them but first get a second opinion. Here are a few pictures I took

calocybe ionides (aka lycophillum ionides, tricholoma ionides)





Remember: "there are old mushroom gatherers and there are bold mushroom gatherers but there are no old bold mushroom gatherers!"

We hiked and we sat and observed the beauty! Zoe did a great job keeping up with us, running ahead. She was looking for fairy houses......this morning when we woke up she wanted to watch "Kristin Fairy House DVD" I let her, she rarely asks to watch something. We found this mushroom growng out of a hole in a tree trunk.....a perfect gnome home.




We also identified some Indian Cucumber Root (Medeola virginiana), in the Lily family, the leaves grow in two whorls, the top most leaves are up to 3” long, These whorls of leaves, particularly the lower whorl of larger leaves, are very striking, a kind of green star through which the stem rises. This plant is quite scarce now.....the patch we saw was quite abundant so we dug one and all took a nibble! what a treat!

We ended our afternoon by going to the falls and watching the leaves flow down the falls. Zoe was brave enough to take her shoes and socks off and test the water.....brrrr!