I asked @clareartista how she felt about driving up to the wee forest above our land, yesterday morning, before actually heading to the land itself and do some work on our garden and house ( that still needs to be named ). We were thinking to go to the woods, the day before, but too tired after a visit to another town but yesterday we woke up pretty refreshed after a(n exceptional) night of decent sleep. Suffice to say that Clare felt excited to go on a walk to scout for mushrooms. Fungi season is about to start out here and we are finally getting some decent rain and cooler weather this time of the year.
The first half an hour or so of our walking and climbing through the hilly forest, we hardly noticed any fungi but - as tends to be the case - once we reached a certain point ( of focus ), more and more of them started 'popping up' in our vicinity, starting with these interesting, turtle shell looking ones, at the edge of a field:
Now I'm not an expert at all, I probably knew more about mushrooms as a little kid ( under the age of 10 ) but Clare has quite a bit of knowledge in this area ( and a handful of mushroom guide books ) and thought they might be (some kind of ) boletus edilis.
Here's a bunch of pictures of mushrooms that we stumbled upon...
and some yellow looking juicy ones on a stick...
The panoramic mountain view that we got from the field where we saw our first mushrooms of the day also wasn't too shabby, to say the least...
Clare looking up at some towering trees...
These 'shrooms were particularly beautiful...
And this one looked similar to the edible parasol mushroom ( one of the few that I can identify and have foraged and eaten several times, both in Portugal and Italy ) but is probably another variety that I'm not too sure about.
To summarize, we thoroughly enjoyed our walk that included loads of climbing ( amazing exercise ), plenty of fresh air, a bit of light rain and a little picknick.
We also ended up helping the local 'vigile' ( the local police mostly focused on checking whether people are 'behaving' and aren't up to shady things ) to make it out of the forest.
When we were about to leave the forest, her car passed by and we had a little chat ( as we live in/near a small town and she hadn't gotten to know me yet ). And when we left, she called for us and we learnt that her car wasn't starting. With the help of our battery and her jumper cable, we managed to help her out ( of the forest ).
She tried to press on us that we needed to be aware of/afraid of wild animals ( a wolf had attacked a dog recently and there's plenty of cingiali ( wild pigs ) and they are 'dangerous' creatures ). Who would we call if we were in trouble? etc.
We are natural, intelligent people ( not city folk ) who respect nature and use our intuition but try to explain that to a person in authority. Long story short, Clare cleverly replied that the vigile should call us if she was in trouble ( her car wouldn't start ) :<)
In the end, we managed to make the woman smile. We scored some points. We then drove on to our land and spent half a day working on our garden and house before we went home for food, fire and a cosy night. Another day well spent.
Oh no! Now you're known to 'the police.' I bet she's busy writing a report.. Exercise Caution!. Two foreign nutters found skulking in the woods.
This is a perfect time to go hunt fungis! Good time here too, very humid
The vigilessa had good intentions and wa genuinely worried for you
Of course she was! Authorities always have our best interests at heart.:)
🤣 Vigili are locals, not really police, usually handy people, a sort of sceriff for the USA
in other words...nosey fuckers!;)
You've been curated by @plantpoweronhive! Delegations welcome!
Cheers for the curation!
So beautiful. It always makes me smile to think of you two enjoying life together. Don't get eaten by a wolf just when you a perfectly happy.
As @clareartista just mentioned, when I read your comment to her: "Now that wouldn't be the worst way to go."
Enjoy your weekend!
😋🐺🫀🍖
oeeee nice ones! anything eatable there as well in the findings? I dont dare to pluck to eat honestly
I really enjoyed the way you described your walk in the forest with Clare. Mushroom season always brings a special kind of joy, and it’s great how you also ended up helping a local police officer by chance.
When you write First fungi I understood that in my region season is over now and I could only once went for mushroom hunting and unfortunately didn't write post about it yet...