Quite the haul of chanterelles!
Today has been a comedy of errors. And the rain has truly set in. Sunny walks in the woods earlier this week are already a distant memory.
Today, we had one of those lazy family walks which turned into a two-hour ramble. Auri kept saying, “I’m having too much fun!” and Elfi kept laughing and chattering away. The promised showers hadn’t really come to anything, and it was still, warm and calm. We are in peak mushroom season right now, with several varieties popping up in different parts of the woods. Auri knows not to touch any, as I’m not confident enough in my identification, but keeps reminding me that our friend Daša knows which ones we can collect and eat so she’ll be doing that with her one of these days.
The recent rain (three afternoons of thunderstorms, two accompanied by deluges, breaking the heat) has turned the first of the paths through the woods into a broom jungle, the sheer weight of all the water pushing down the whips and closing off the way forward. We picked our way through yesterday, and pruned a few lost branches today.
Auri loves the broom. Whenever we go for a walk, she presents Elfi and me with handfuls of the petals.
Auri and Euan, sitting on a tree trunk and learning about the importance of dead trees to the woodland ecosystem.
It’s that time of year already, where the woods are all mushrooms and larch needles.
It was so still in the woods this morning. Not eerie-still, just peaceful-still. We made it back just before another gentle rain shower.
From earlier this year: Auri and Scapa on a walk through the woods. “Needles on noses, but no woollen mittens…”
