I Love November

The weather has been wonderful! Bluest skies and briskly blowing autumn leaves.

I love November....
It's been great to get out on the beach after a week or more of cooking and cleaning! The shoreline is very empty though...no birds, no seashells, a few dog walkers...and me. Only a few interesting textures to tuck in my pockets..

What sort of seed is this???

                         

...before heading for the dunes where a tiny surprise grows each autumn. Dune mushrooms!

Apparently indigenous, these little mushrooms crop up,

---usually solo in the sandy areas of the dunes!

I've even found morels!

                              

  You'd expect mushrooms in an autumn woods...

...but on the beach? Wherever did they come from? When?

                     

I loved mushroom hunting in my family's Cape Cod woodlot.

 so many kinds...

such fascinating colors:

My dad loved the fairy circle of Indian Pipes (not strictly a mushroom, but a fungus that grows on dead wood....His magical circle grew under big old oaks, among the brown oak leaves and acorns...

                 

And he always scolded, "Don't touch!" as if I was six still...and yes, some varieties are poisonous.

 It's always fun to find the Autumn sand mushrooms...signalling the final days of summer. Fall has come at last, winter soon to follow.

What about you guys? Have you ever mushroom hunted? Did you dare to eat them?

love

             lizzy

.......gone to the beach