It's going to be an interesting month

Easter dinner with family members here was very nice.  Now I'm sitting at the computer watching birds outside my window at the feeder and birdbath.  Cardinals, Tufted Titmouse, house finches, goldfinches, and robins.  Life is good.  
If the ten-day forecast is right, Cliff and I may do some long-distance motorcycle riding next weekend.  But of course, we all know how inaccurate the ten-day forecast can be.  
I have two local blogging friends, a mother and her daughter, whom I've invited to come and hunt morel mushrooms on my place.  Hey, all the neighbors help themselves; why not give some people I like an invitation, and my approval?  I have warned them about the hills and deep valleys, but I imagine they're still going to be surprised.  I'll let you know.  I will be sure to get my picture with them.
In less than three weeks, my friend Joanna is coming to visit.  Several years ago, I spent a few days at her home near Washington, DC, and got to see some Smithsonian exhibits and other historic sites.  
Last time she visited here, she talked me into getting Cliff to the doctor for what he and I assumed was heartburn.  Just as Joanna thought, it wasn't heartburn: it was angina.  And less than a week after her visit, Cliff was having open heart surgery.   We will be eternally grateful; we believe God sent her here at that time.  
Anyhow, this month holds promise.  So do the months ahead.  It could be an interesting and enjoyable summer.

stuff

The dwarf lilac bush I planted last summer is blooming its little heart out. It's right beside the front porch, and the smell is divine!

Wednesday a friend's son came out to hunt for morels. I really figured it was getting too late in the season, but he got a nice mess of them, and they were fresh and in good shape.

On another note, are you in need of something chocolate? Free, even?

Click HERE.

How I prepare morel mushrooms

Morels can't be used like you'd use regular mushrooms from the grocery store. You mustn't eat them raw in salads, because they can make you sick if they aren't cooked.

The first thing I do with them is halve them lengthwise, rinse them off, and soak them in salt water. Salt water gets the ants and snails out. When I'm ready to use them, I remove them from the salt water and rinse off any remaining dirt.

Some people saute them. If I only find a few, so that it isn't enough to make a "mess", I dice them, saute them, and scramble some eggs with them.

My mother simply rolled morels in flour and fried them. I really prefer them dipped in an egg-and-milk mixture, then rolled in a combination of half flour and half finely-crushed round crackers like Hi Ho or Ritz.

In the woods

Join me and my dog, Sadie, as I hunt for morel mushrooms.

New life

I'm an early riser. Far too early to suit me, but that's how I'm wired, I guess.

As soon as it's light enough to see, I go outside, because exciting things are happening out there. Since we claimed this section of the pasture/hayfield as home only last summer, we had lots of planting to do. Now everything is coming to life, and it's a big adventure for me.

Right outside the front door is this dwarf lilac bush which, as you can see, is about to bloom. I don't know why it's slower than all the other lilacs in the neighborhood; I'm just happy to know it's going to have flowers, and it's less than a year old.

Behind the lilac bush is a clematis vine, one of several Cliff's sister brought from Wisconsin last year. It seems to climb inches taller each day.

In the front yard, I check the Chanticleer Pear tree. In the background you can see one of two Autumn Blaze maples that are also thriving and healthy. You can also see the mature Kentucky Coffee Bean tree I blogged about recently.

Following the sidewalk around the house to the back, I monitor the progress of the Astilbes I put out in early spring. These are especially exciting because I've never had them, and all I know about how they look is what I saw in the seed catalog. I can't wait to see them up-close and personal! They're supposed to be a good shade plant, and I needed something on the north side of the house.

Another good plant for the shade, Impatiens.

This is the tiny Chinquapin Oak tree I brought up from the woods last fall. It's alive! See the reddish leaf-buds? It's a slow grower, so Cliff and I probably won't live to see it in its mature glory. Still, it'll be fun to watch, knowing it started life back by my cabin.

I received ten free trees (for a small donation, so how free is that?) from the Arbor Day Foundation. I had given them all up for dead, but a few days ago I noticed the Washington Hawthorns had buds, and I did a happy dance. Out of ten trees, two lived. Hey, that's better than nothing.

And then this morning, I noticed that a flowering crabapple is waking up. That makes three out of ten. Maybe more will come to life?

I've already blogged about the "dead" Norway Spruce trees that are, one by one, getting busy growing. I love it! Seeing life come back into those trees, some of which had become nothing but bare sticks, is amazing.

No, this wasn't taken in my yard. I took it yesterday in the woods. I must say, all of these and others I found were very tasty.

See? How can a person NOT be excited, with all this going on?

What a day!

I started my day this morning with an hour-long ride on Blue. It was cloudy, but still a pleasant ride.

Cliff, who has never been able to find any morels, decided we'd mushroom-hunt instead of taking our regular walk, which suited me just fine. We split up so we could cover a larger area.

I found this white-ish toad. Or frog. I've never seen any amphibians this color before. He wasn't spookish at all, but stayed frozen to the spot while I took this closeup shot.

Another Mayflower growing through a leaf.

For the first time in his life, Cliff found some morels. Of course, it took the two of us two hours to find this many.

Lovely day, once the rain stopped

After eating lunch, I did a little morel hunting. This year I don't intend to tell you my morel adventures until the season is over (because who knows who is reading this); I'm sure I'll have more exciting adventures this year than ever, with lots of pictures of strangers making themselves at home on my property. I'm so glad that wildlife cameras don't cost much these days.. But you'll just have to wait, to see my results.

Once Sadie and I returned to the house, I "mudded in" the Yukon Gold potatoes and planted a variety of flowering plants, most of which I've never tried before; in fact, I've never heard of most of them. Oh, and I set out some ever-bearing and day-neutral strawberries.

I planted the following flowers: Hydrangea Blueberry Parfait; Coneflower; Blazing Star Liatris; Sub-zero mixed Hibiscus and Blazing Star Liatris.

I'll let you know how all that stuff turns out.

Oh, by the way... my beets are up.

Wordless Wednesday: Morel mushrooms

For more Wordless Wednesdays, go HERE.

Thief!!!! Trespasser!!!!

Well, this isn't the first trespassing morel-hunter on my land this year, but it's the first one I've caught in the act.

I was riding my horse to the river this morning, but before I crossed the railroad track, I noticed a car parked at Pedigo's abandoned place. Now, that place adjoins the back of our property, so I suspected it would be a good time to go back home and ride on my own property. Blue and I turned around.

Sure enough, there he was on one of our steepest banks. That white shirt really shows up out in the woods, as does the white hair.

"You're on my property," I said. "You have no business here."

"OK, I'll leave," he answered. And struggled up the steep bank.

"These hills will give you a heart attack," I warned. Good grief, what's an old man like that doing climbing around in these gullies?

"I know."

"Are you the one parked down at Pedigo's?"

"I'm one of them."

Often I suggest the trespassers give me half of what they've found; this guy obviously had quite a few in his bag. But somehow I just didn't have the heart, this time, to ask.

I rode Blue down through the gullies and didn't see any more thieves. But I'm sure they've been there.

I need to remember to get closer to my subjects, if I'm going to make them notorious on the Internet. Although if you click on the picture, you'll see a very clear likeness of the old guy.

Meanwhile, he has a story to tell when he meets his buddies at the car. I can just hear it now: "There was this old lady riding a big brown horse and she ran me off; looked like she might have had a gun, too. Oh, and she took my picture!"

It'll probably make his day.

Morel mushrooms galore

There's a story behind this "nice mess" of morels.

A year ago, the next-door teenage twin boys asked if they and their also-next-door cousin could hunt for morels on my property. I have bad knees and can't keep up with the mushroom-hunting, and I told them yes; somebody may as well have them.

A couple of hours later I heard an engine back in my pasture; going back to check out the situation, I found the three boys I'd given permission to mushroom hunt, along with three other boys, riding a cart behind a lawn mower. Needless to say, I was angry, and I snatched the bag of morels one of the kids had.

Last week, one of the twins called and asked permission to hunt mushrooms on our 43 acres.

"Nope," I told him.

Today one of the twins spent some time here, visiting with me, my husband, and my daughter's family. I told my story about 1993, the year I found morels a-plenty, and how I shared my bounty with the neighbors.

"You know," I said, "all I want is for those who find morels on my property to share what they find with me."

Later on, as I was heading into the house, Tyler (the twin) asked, "Could we hunt mushrooms on your place if we give you half?"

"Hmmm," I said, "I'm not sure I can trust you to share. But for today only, yes... you can."

A couple of hours later there was a knock on my door. It was Tyler and his cousin, Ryan, with a Walmart bag in hand that held fifty mushrooms.

I invited them in and we split the loot. That's my half you see in the picture.

I always thought I liked those boys. God bless them. I told them I now take back anything bad I ever said about them.

Oh, if they bring me another mess of mushrooms, I'll get their pictures for you.

Things found in the woods

Although I'm still running a low-grade fever and have a rattling in my chest, I felt I should check on the horses this morning. We had a rainstorm last night that included half-inch hail, and I knew the horses would have been spooking all over the pasture. I wanted to make sure they hadn't run through a fence or into a ditch and hurt themselves.


I found them grazing peacefully back by the pond. Since I was that close to the woods, I figured I may as well check for morels (don't know what morels are? Click HERE).


I found no sign of morels or morel-hunters, although I went to all the honey-holes I could manage, in my weakened condition. This picture shows the sort of place where you're likely to find the mushrooms.


I saw this bird moving in the brush; I first thought it was a mother bird acting injured, trying to lure me away from her nest, but when it allowed me to poke and prod it with my fingertip, I realized it was just a young bird, either injured or too sickly to fly.



In another spot I found this bright yellow feather.

I did find some sort of fungus growing on dead wood. I don't know if these are edible or not; I only eat morels, because I know what they look like and feel I won't get poisoned by them.

mushroom hunters

Well, when you have a few acres in Missouri and it's morel season, you're always meeting new people. This guy and his friends happened to be in one of our hollers when I was walking Sadie today; I suggested they share their mushrooms with me, since they were on my land. This fellow was happy to oblige, but as I told him, that isn't really enough to fool with.
This guy obviously had more, but I didn't make an issue of it. He did apologize profusely, but I imagine they're still back there.

Their lady friend was a bit camera shy, and acted rather put out that I interrupted their expedition. I guess she doesn't like making new friends.

I wonder if my friend Tracy knows any of these folks.

OK, as I was saying... I did find morels!

We received an inch and 1/4 of rain this morning, so I knew it would be wet in the woods. My feet are in terrible shape, and I can't wear boots very long at a time because I have to have my inserts to remain pain-free. So I got my rattiest pair of sneakers and put plastic bags inside them. It worked pretty well.

There's no lack of fungus in the woods, but I only eat morels. It's too easy to get poisoned by mushrooms if you don't know what you're doing. I don't know what sort of mushroom or toadstool that is growing on the dead wood. See all the Mayflowers growing? That's always a good sign it's time for morels.

This little guy is about the size of the tip of my little finger. I sat and talked to him for awhile... which is how my butt got wet. I did find several morels, but they were all too tiny to pick. I love the macro setting on my Canon.

I did pick the biggest one I found, just to be able to say I had one. I put a penny beside it for comparison.