The Mushroom Factory

 

Mushrooms growing on fallen oak tree.

Last weekend's tropical storm Ophelia dropped more than 2.5 inches of very welcome rain on our area. It's been such a dry year, I hadn't seen a single mushroom all spring and summer. Yesterday, after all that rain, seemed like a good time to look for mushrooms. I went out back to forage for specimens to sketch, and look what I found! A wealth of fungi on the fallen trunks of the old oak tree that came down two years ago--it's like having my very own mushroom factory!

 

The base of the oak trunk.

The base of the old oak tree had these Turkey Tail polypores laddering their way up the trunk in lovely shades of violet and brown. The fallen trunks were covered with tiny orange colored polypores, as well as Turkey Tails, Coral Polypores, and Lord knows what else.

 

Greenish polypores, likely algae on old Turkey Tails.

Polypores growing on fallen tree trunk.

 

Coral polypores (Byssomerulius incarnatus).

More Coral polypores.

These look like Lion's Mane mushrooms, but I'll have to take a closer look to make sure. Mushrooms can change quite a bit as they develop.

 

Lion's Mane mushrooms (Hericium erinaceus)?

After reconnoitering here, I crossed the drainage ditch and went up the hill into my neighbor's woods, and found several single mushrooms growing here and there, but nothing like the profusion on the rotting logs. The three specimens I collected on the hill, I suspect are the same variety of mushroom, but at different stages of development.

 

Agaricus placomyces?

 

The annulus, the ring that encloses the veil which some mushrooms have is clearly visible on the stem. Unfortunately I didn't take photos of the other two in situ, but in my sketches you can see that the youngest specimen (lightest in color) had a conical cap and the veil still covered the gills completely. The veil began to detach from the cap as it dried out. The third stage is between the mature and the young, with the veil still partially attached to the cap and the gills turning dark.

 

Sketchbook page, Agaricus placomyces.

Specimens collected on Sept 26 (upper l to r):  Puff-ball fungi, unidentified, maybe Inocybe sororia, Coral Polypore, acorns.

I drew the ones below yesterday from  fresh specimens collected that day. For a minute I thought the beautifully colored polypore could be the edible Chicken-of- the-woods mushroom but it's not yellow enough to be that, so Coral Polypore is the best ID I can do with my limited knowledge.

Mushroom sketches: Puff-balls, Inocybe sororia and Coral Polypore.

Meadow mushroom in our lawn (Agaricus campestris)

And here's another sketch from my Fungi sketchbook. I'll have to keep an eye on the mushroom factory in the woods as the season progresses--who knows what else might show up?

Mosaic Worshop at the Red House

Amanda McGuire's Red House Residence mosaic.

 

Two weeks ago I returned to the Red House in Bath County to take part in the workshop offered by the then-current resident artist Anne Atkins, a master in mosaics. Anne is from the Richmond area, and I met her through the Chickahominy Colored Pencil Artists (CCPA) group. I wasn't sure exactly at what time the workshop was starting, so I left my house early in the morning for the two and a half hour drive there. 

It was very foggy when I left, I could only see about 50 feet in front of me while moseying out of my neighborhood. As I sped out onto I-66 and then south on I-81 the fog gradually cleared, and somewhere before reaching Harrisonburg, the sun broke through the clouds for dramatic glimpses of our valley and its mountains with wisps of fog. 

 

Anne (standing) preparing for the workshop.

By the time I got there it was 10:30 AM and sunny. As it turned out, the workshop didn't start until 1:00 PM, so I had a chance to visit with Judy, the artist who helps Amanda with the artist residency, as well as Anne. Anne's old pit bull Sumac kept her company during her stay at the Red House, and she'd also brought her three lovely pet painted finches.

The workshop was held in the roofed shed next to the Red House; Amanda had set up another tent next to it so we could spread out and have plenty of room to work--the day was very warm and an electric fan kept us cool.

 

Anne with students.

Anne answers questions.

Anne had all the materials organized: different colors and sizes of mosaic tiles (both ceramic and vitreous), glass, and broken shards of pottery in zip-lock bags, 8"x 8" plywood panels for the supports, small plastic bottles filled with glue, tile cutters and files for each student and a styrofoam tray to sort our tiles and apply the glue, everything was so well planned!

There were seven of us there, and a few of us already had an idea of what we wanted to create, while others improvised, inspired by the assortment of colors and textures. We settled down to our work while chatting, and the afternoon just flew by. In the middle of the afternoon it started to rain lightly, but under the tent, everyone stayed dry and kept on working until the rain eventually tapered off.

We didn't have time to get into the grouting portion of the workshop, since only a few of us had finished gluing the pieces to our substrate, myself included--I particularly loved including a few of Judy's colored pencil stumps for the stem of my flower. One always wonders what to do with these stumps of colored pencils, it seems like such a shame to throw them out when they become too short to be usable.

We had so much fun! It can be tricky, trying to fit these small pieces of tile, glass or found objects the way one would fit a jigsaw puzzle, but it sure can be addicting! Take a look at some of the pieces created during the workshop--each one is so original!

 

Judy's "picassette" style mosaic with costume jewelry and beach glass.

Nell's flower and bee mosaic (in progress)

Amy's crab mosaic (in progress)

My ruby-throated hummingbird mosaic (in progress).

  

Most of the participants left right at 4 o'clock, and I wasn't able to photograph everyone's piece. I stayed a bit longer trying to get my piece as far along as I could but there wasn't enough time to finish it, so Anne was very kind to let me take the cutters and materials home to try to finish my piece here.

There weren't enough vitreous white tiles to finish the background, but I visited the website Anne had recommended and purchased a small package of those, and one of assorted tile colors, hoping to create more mosaics later on. My ruby-throated hummingbird with cardinal flower mosaic is now complete, and ready to grout.

 

Ruby-throated hummingbird and cardinal flower mosaic.

 

Even Fewer Blooms Day

 

Black Cotton Flower (Gossypium herbaceum 'Nigra'), watercolor, 12" x 9".

Today the 15th is garden bloggers Bloom Day, hosted by Carol Michel's "May Dreams Garden.' This month I have even fewer flowers than in August. While the drought continued the deer managed to eat further and further into my plantings, stripping my hydrangeas and anything edible. A couple of thunderstorms finally brought us a good drenching at the beginning of the month, and now everything seems to be growing once again. But, with the plants and buds gone, very little is left to bloom. So, instead, I'm headlining my post with some blooms in a painting. I painted this little watercolor last week from photos taken last year--one of the black cotton plants I like to grow from seed in pots on my deck.

The flowers of the cotton plant hide under the foliage, so it's easy to miss their extraordinary beauty: the exquisite veining of the petals, and the dragon-like dark bracts that will enclose the boll after the flower fades. Here's a look at the blossom from above (taken last year).

 

View of black cotton flower from above.

 

Here are a few more blooms for today--my hanging baskets were out of the deer's reach, but they didn't exactly fill out as much as I would have liked. Trying to keep these going through the drought, my water bill went through the roof last month!

 

One hanging basket on porch.

Second hanging basket on porch.

Out in the yard there are a few flowers that have been spared by the deer, but these aren't making much of a display. My Viburnum 'Brandywine' is displaying its lovely berries turning pink--later on they will turn dark blue.

Viburnum 'Brandywine'

'Texas red' Salvia

The 'Texas red' Salvia I planted this year is just starting to bloom--you can see the deer ate the top bud. Rather unusual, I've never seen deer go after any members of the Salvia family before this year. My Agastache 'Blue Boa' is one they didn't touch--will definitely plant more next year.

 

Agastache 'Blue Boa'

 

Inside my enclosed veggie patch the eggplants are still flowering, along with Marigolds, Roma tomatoes and Calendula 'Neon.' I have one small pumpkin of 'Galeux d'Eysines' growing, which I don't think will get much bigger, now that it's starting to show the characteristic "peanuts" that indicate sugar deposits.

 

Eggplant flower

French Marigolds.

Calendula 'Neon'

'Galeux d'Eysines' pumpkin

The Jerusalem artichokes in a grow-bag became enormously tall this year: the tallest flower stalk is probably nine feet tall. I have yet to harvest these, let's hope the rhizomes will be as impressive as the flowers. Whereas my fingerling potatoes, in a matching grow-bag, didn't amount to much--just enough for a couple of meals.

Jerusalem artichoke flower stalks.

 

The three Caryopteris 'Longwood Blue' shrubs I had died off last winter, only one plant put out a few shoots, but some volunteer seedlings have started to grow to replace them--I have no idea if these come true from seed, but the new plants seem to be similar, though not as tall.

 

Seedlings of Caryopteris 'Longwood Blue'

Russian sage

I have two of varieties of Russian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia) flanking each side of this group of arbor vitae: one is the ordinary genus, but I think this one is a dwarf variety which has turned out to be much taller than I'd expected.

 

Mushrooms in flower beds.

 

This morning I found some mushrooms growing in my weedy flower beds--maybe the pleated ink-cap?--first mushrooms I've seen in this entire, very dry year. The day before I had noticed something strange growing in one my houseplant pots inside, and upon closer examination found three mushrooms growing in there too!

 

Mushrooms growing in houseplant pot.

 

Looking on-line to try to guess what variety they might be, it's likely these are Leucoprinus birnbaumii, AKA "flowerpot parasol." There's always so much to learn from one's garden, I love having my own laboratory!