Mushrooms, Toads, and History

On Friday I decided that Ezren and I needed to get out of the house.  It was a beautiful autumn day -- partly cloudy (just the way I like it), slight breeze, bit of a chill.  I seem to be saying that a lot lately!

We decided to head out to the lake about 15 minutes from our house. 
Before we left, I thought to myself, "If I don't take the camera, I will regret it, but if I do take it, it will be a burden to have with the dog and Ez." 

So, I didn't take it. 
Fully regret that.
(All of these pics are from another walk at the lake . . . four years ago.)

The forest looked different.  Not bad different . . . just different.

Zelda was in heaven.  She loves sniffing all of the other animal smells and was going crazy.  I'm not sure how, but she seems to know that we follow the path.  She lead us along the trail and not very far in we saw our first . . .

MUSHROOM!

I have a thing for mushrooms.  Small ones, big ones, it doesn't matter.  Fungi are just so fascinating!  One day, no mushroom, then poof!  Mushrooms everywhere!

We saw mushrooms of all colors:  red, orange, yellow, green, purple, brown, black, white, pink -- though sadly, no blue.  I'm not even sure if there are blue mushrooms, but we looked.

We saw big ones (8" tall),

small ones (.25 cm),

short ones,

tall ones,

fat ones,

skinny ones,

flat ones,

round ones.

It was a fungus infestation!

The coolest mushrooms by far were found by Ezren.  He called them Rainbow.  On the side of the trail were these two mushrooms, side by side, as wide as my hand.  In the center was a bright red circle, then it spread out to orange, and lastly, the edges were lemon yellow!

Gorgeous.

He told me they should be in Mushroom Gorge (from Mario Kart).

We're very lucky to have this lake so close to the house.  Not a lot of people frequent the trails.  I think they are afraid of this:

Not us though!

No Duck and Cover here.  We embrace nuclear radiation. (HA!)

Ezren chose to continue our walk along the History Trail.  There used to be a farm and house on this land before the nuclear plant was built, and you can still see the remaining foundations.  There are cool ponds and an old dock that used to be used for fishing.  Some grapes are still growing on the arbors.

At one of the ponds, Ezren and I stopped to enjoy the algae.  Seriously, it was completely covered in the green stuff!  When we were ready to continue on, I just happened to look down before taking a step, and holy cow, a huge toad was literally one inch from my foot!  Really big.  The size of my spread out hand.  He must have come from the pond because he too was covered in algae.  I asked if Ez wanted to touch it, but he said, "No way!"  I touched his back, but he just sat there.  So, I held tight to Zelda's collar and let her get close enough to sniff.  And when she did -- BOING!  Away went the toad.  He hopped right out into the pond.  And because there was so much algae, he could actually hop twice on top before going splash into the water.

In total we were at the lake about an hour and a half.  It was wonderful to breathe the fresh air and feel the wind on our skin. 

To see nature. 

To touch the earth. 

To feel like we were completely alone.   

Imagining what life was like a hundred years ago on that farm amidst the towering trees which themselves are hundreds of years old.

And next time I'll take the camera.