Category: Alice’s Photos

#314 – Return to the earth that which it creates

Dale View Collage

 

My primary reason for journeying to Australia was to visit with my dear friends Craig Hosmer and Daryl Reinke. We met some forty years ago in Washington, DC.  They have been the most constant and generous friends.

In 1994 they retired to Australia, Daryl’s birth place.  For years they had dreamed of a bigger garden and, by gum, they got one!  They purchased 40 acres of cleared land on the Sunshine Coast. It had been cow pasture for decades but it was previously rain forest and they set out to return the land to its original state.  Their success has been spectacular.  In the two pictures above you can see their land from my first trip in August 2001 and the same land fourteen years later.

Lots can happen in fourteen years, obviously.  Things change. Friends and family pass away. New babies are born, so are new countries.  But amidst all the swirl and chaos there is, as Paul Simon so eloquently put it, “the automatic earth.”  Treat it tenderly and it is your friend for life…literally.

In 2001 we planted a tree in honor of Robert, my late husband, who had been gone for just three months. We planted it along the left edge of that pond you can see in the top photo. And just below you can see what a difference fourteen years can make.

Craig and Daryl in front of Robert's tree, November 2015.
Craig and Daryl in front of Robert’s tree, November 2015.
Planting Robert's tree on Sept. 4, 2001
Planting Robert’s tree on Sept. 4, 2001

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While in Australia I learned about the Butchulla people, an Aboriginal tribe that lives on Fraser Island. Their tribe has few laws but the first is, “Whatever is good for the land comes first.”   Part of Robert’s ashes are in that magnificent tree and it is good.  ❧

1

Image #313-Red-legged Pademelon

Red legged pademelon

Tell someone you’ve been to Australia and you can expect to hear, “Wow! Did you see any kangaroos?”  The answer is, “Yes!”  But the ‘roos I saw were not what we think of here in the USA.  On my first trip, in 2001, I did see one of those big ‘roos, hopping down the fairway on a golf course!

On this trip the sightings were less dramatic.  We saw several Red-legged pademelon (Thylogale stigmatica) which Wikipedia describes a “a marsupial rainforest kangaroo.”  They are quite shy and hang in the shadows which makes photographs difficult.  This little guy  is probably an adult which means she/he is about 2 1/2 feet tall when upright.  Because their habitat is rainforest the range of the species has shrunk and Wikipedia says it is a vulnerable species.  Australia has many preserves where these charming creatures can live but we humans, frankly, are crowding out everything.  It would be too bad to lose a creature with such a lyrical name. ❧

1

Image #312 – Alice Down Under

20151122

 

That’s me in Australia and that thing above my head is a Stag Horn fern — a relatively small one.   They grow like weeds Down Under.  Same with Birds’ Nest Ferns.  It is a magical place. This particular picture was taken on Fraser Island, just off the Sunshine Coast.  It is the largest sand island in the world and is listed on the U.N. Heritage Sites which means, hopefully, it will remain as pristine and special as it is today for generations to enjoy.

Australia is quite keen on ecology and environment, as well they should be.  They have been able to protect so much of their unique flora and fauna even with the massive amount of global travel and commerce.  In one park we visited, another U.N. Heritage site, there are machines where you clean the bottom of your boots with a disinfectant and brush before hiking so as not to track in contaminants.  Despite that effort there are invasive species of plants and fungi.  Still, you must do what you can do.

Today I am back in the States, finally emerging from jet lag and trying to “get back into it.”  That won’t be easy, especially as I begin the sorting of my 2,000 pictures.  Stay tuned…plenty of Aussie pictures coming soon.  ❧

 

0

Image #311 – Tango in the mushrooms

Tango in the Mushrooms

It is really, really fall up here in Western North Carolina.  Tango is enjoying the cooler days and all the different smells.  Life is good.  ❧

1

#310 – Twin acorn

Twin acorn

 

Twin acorn…enough said.  Happy fall to the Northern Hemisphere. ❧

0

Apres le deluge – Images #308-310

Most people are aware of the horrific rains that we have endured here in the Carolinas.  I am in Western North Carolina at about 2,ooo feet elevation so most of what falls here heads downhill…towards South Carolina.  Poor South Carolina.  Anyone who has watched the news in recent days knows the heartache that is being endured in the Palmetto State after a flood of Biblical proportions.  But here in North Carolina things are drying out and the sun has shown for two days. It has been wonderful.

SAMSUNG CSC
Little Helmets

The return of the sun has encouraged my mushroom friends to emerge.  The first were these helmet-style little guys who popped up at the base of my hickory maple.

I couldn’t believe it when I looked at the photos and saw another little one emerging under the bark.

SAMSUNG CSC
Peek-a-boo!

 

Later in the day I climbed the ridge behind the house and found this soldier pushing its way up through the pine straw and perfectly lit in the setting light of the day. Things are drying out, life goes on. ❧

SAMSUNG CSC
At the end of a sunny day.

 

0

Image #307 – Blue Velvet Fungi

Blue Velvet Fungi
Blue Velvet Fungi

Still in the Carolina mountains but the days are slipping away. Summer officially ends tomorrow. The leaves are starting to change color and litter my yard.  Soon I will join the birds in heading south.

My pictures this season, like my posts, have been sketchy at best. Today’s offering is a photo that was taken a month ago and sat in the camera, patiently waiting. It is Blue Velvet Fungi that I unearthed while moving some branches. It was in full bloom, an absolutely delicious shade of blue that this photo barely captures.  The next shot gives you a close-up.

Blue Velvet Fungi - Closeup
Blue Velvet Fungi – Closeup

Amazing nature…it doesn’t care about pictures, blog posts, newsletters, speeches or meetings.  It simply does what it does best…astound. ❧

2

Image #306 – Color of the Day – Banana Caterpillar

SAMSUNG CSC
A Banana Caterpillar

My friend Joe Bruneau likes to post “Today’s Color” on his Facebook account.  Today’s color is banana and I thought that was interesting since I found this almost banana-colored caterpillar on my deck rail this morning.  I think this is his face but for all I know he could be mooning all of us.  😀    ❦

0

Image #305 – Female Hummingbird

Female hummingbird on branch.
Female hummingbird on branch.

 

As pretty as a picture.  A female hummer bides her time. ❦

2

Images 302-304 Blue and Orange Mushrooms

Have I mentioned that I live in a rain forest?  Most people think of rain forests as tropical, mainly in places like Brazil and Africa.  But the Nantahala Forest, where my home is located in Franklin, NC, is close to being a temperate rain forest (more than 55 inches of precipitation annually and a mean temperature of 39º to 54º F).  It is very damp at times and this is one of them.  You can almost wring the moisture from the air and I have found myself tapping the hygrometer dial on my weather station, convinced it must be stuck on 100%.  It isn’t.

But for this mushroom loving gal this is THE place to be. The ‘shrooms are popping up everywhere, in a rainbow of colors and shapes. I have taken to walking early in the a.m. to see what emerged overnight.  And while many may be termed mundane as far as mushrooms go, others are spectacular.

Take this blue mushroom.  It is, I think, an Anise-scented Clitocybe but, honestly, it is so hard to know when the field guide gives you this: “dingy green to bluish-green,  sometimes blue or nearly white”.  Well, that’s a lot of latitude.

SAMSUNG CSC

The shape seems right. I never thought to check its scent and by the time I had read the field guide and returned to check its scent it was gone. The field guide did mention it was edible and we have many fat squirrels and chipmunks around here.

Here is a photograph of its underside. The gills were spectacular in the morning light.

SAMSUNG CSC

 

And if blue mushrooms are too dull for you check out these beauties.

SAMSUNG CSC

 

They are no taller than a dime and they must not taste very good because they have been very long lasting. They are, I believe, Orange Mycena (Mycena leaiana). Once again our friends at Wikipedia provide some fascinating details.

Mycena leaiana, commonly known as the orange mycena or Lea’s mycena, is a North American species of saprobic fungi in the genus Mycena, family Tricholomataceae. Characterized by their bright orange caps and stalks and reddish-orange gill edges, they usually grow in dense clusters on deciduous logs. The pigment responsible for the orange color in this species has antibiotic properties.

That last sentence caught my eye. Another site I visited while learning about rainforests taught me that 1 in 4 ingredients in our medicines are derived from rainforest plants.  We really need to stop destroying them. According to one site, an area of a rainforest the size of a football field is being destroyed each second.  ❧

 

2

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑