Hunter-Gatherer

I suppose that is what I have become now that the natural dye bug has set in.  Today I took the camera with me as I was visiting with the horse and totally neglected to take a single picture.  But, I did manage to come home with a bounty of lichens and fungi for dying.  

Walmart bag half full of lichens and spider stow away.

Mystery fungi.  Anyone know if it will give dye?  There are plenty more small ones growing where I found these.

  

Pretty sure this is a lichen of some sort.  Found it on the base of a rotting log.

And what is this?  Well, I'm working on a free pattern for a new lace yarn.  Let me tell you this is one yummy little number!  More details coming soon!

Fungus Amungus

It goes with out say, we have had our fair share of rain lately.  Enough so that I have wondered of the need to build our own personal little Ark with enough room for Bill, the critters and of course little ol' me.  Well, and enough room for his guitars & my fiberly pursuits of course.  And there surely will be room for all friends and family, but let's hope its doesn't come to that;)

I digress just a tad from the title, but not much.  For you see, with out all this miserable soul crushing endless rain there wouldn't be the bounty of natures little helpers we seem to have now.  Beautiful fungi of all shapes and sizes just in time to help those dead things in the soil decay just a little bit more so that we can have the lovely green growth we so desire each year after the spring showers.

These are just a few we found in the yard the other day between torrential down pours.  Bill was wondering if any were edible and while I love the simple beauty of a mushroom as it pokes from the ground to open it's cap and spread forth it's spores,  I don't think I was quite in the mood to be his 'royal taste tester'....lol

Fungi eating away at a stump from a bush we removed several years ago.

Fairy ring around our pear tree.

The caps do look like frilly little fairy wings do they not?

Cracking caps

This one is my favorite.  A close up of the previous caps.