In the fall we often experience rainy days every week. This results in lots of fungi. Some of the common ones that we encounter are the earthstars. These are on our property as well as all of the sandy areas nearby. The small hole in the center is where the spores emerge. After a rain and these are still soft you can tap on the white ball-like structure and watch a cloud of spores puff out.
Two pretty little fungi that we found on our walk on Monday were the yellow club fungus on the left (most were less than 25 mm tall) growing on sandy ridges covered with pine needles. The orange jelly fungus was growing on a jack pine log. It was also about 25 mm in diameter, perhaps 10-12 mm in height. This now brings me to the art challenge, which for today is heavy. Naturally, I opted to start with a photo from near the dune hawk-watching deck.
This is an old chain from a ship, most like an anchor. To give you some perspective, each link is about 30 mm thick and 75-80 mm in length.
The bison here, which I believe is the largest mammal in North America, was photographed at the Theodore Roosevelt grasslands in North Dakota in 2018. It was truly a massive beast, demanding all the respect that it deserved.
And a final heavy image is a sketch that I did at the Detroit Zoo.
Drawing at zoos is a lot of fun, and we have done it for years. Unfortunately once I started the drawing it was obvious that the largest horn would not fit on the page. Oh, well, I still like it.
Tomorrow the challenge is loud, which will be fun, and the start of the hockey season which might prompt a second post.
More tomorrow…
Michael's Place 