Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: grouping

I remember how thrilled I was when I came across this beautiful display of scaley mushrooms growing around the base of a tree in Brown-Lowery Provincial Park on 17th August last year. Because the light is usually so low deep in the forest, I never know whether photos will come out or not, but I was lucky enough with this one.

This was an ID suggested by a Flickr member on a photo of the same fungus, photographed at the same time and place, taken by a friend of mine. Found growing at the side of the Picklejar Lakes trail in Kananaskis on 6 August 2010. Location of this trail on my map is only very approximate. www.mushroomexpert.com/laccaria_proxima.html

During a day of botanizing NW of Calgary at the Waiparous trails, on 31 August 2012, I happened to notice two small circles of purple on an enormous midden (hoarding pile) beneath a tree, where a Red Squirrel had buried and stored pine cones to keep them dry during the winter. When I gently cleared away the debris, this is what I found! ID suggested by GORGEous nature (John) - Mycena pura. Thanks, John! 12:30 p.m (noon): Hold your clicks a moment .... This seems to be happening rather too often.

I hadn't seen these before - I thought they might be Devil's Urn, but I got the correct ID from dougwaylett - thanks, Doug! Found growing in Brown-Lowery Provincial Park a few days ago. Nearby, there were three separate ones tucked into the beautiful moss and these ones looked just like black, pitted olives, LOL. For some strange reason, I had so much trouble trying to get a photo of these - my camera viewfinder looked totally blown-out and I could barely get a photo. Managed to get a couple that were OK. I'm going to absolutely collapse in a short while, with a mug of coffee and the sandwich I took with me today but never ate. A handful of us made a return visit today to Rod Handfield's property south west of the city, and we spent the whole day botanizing and mushrooming. Totally exhausted and I need some "lunch" and coffee. I think I am totally "mushroomed out" - it's a wonderful forest to explore and we found all sorts of interesting things. I'm filthy, tired and hungry .... and happy : )

I thought this clump of Prairie Crocuses (growing at Sandy Beach recently) might serve as a reminder of just how lucky we are to have endless beauty around us, in different forms for each of the seasons of every year. Human beings seem to have a talent for "messing up" the balance of nature in so many ways and mistreating our earth. May we be blessed with enough wisdom to look around around us, to actually SEE how fortunate we are, and to not just know that we need to take much greater care of our planet, but to also do everything we can, before it's too late, to ensure that future generations get the chance to enjoy nature's wonders. Will add Ambre's link up here - thanks, Ambre! Question: How many petals does each flower have? ANSWER: there are NO petals - the purple parts are SEPALS! Sorry, it was a trick question : ) I spent all morning this Earth Day, walking along the Bow River with friends. Straight afterwards, I drove over to the Zoo for a while, mainly to visit the amazing butterflies : ) An hour and a half or two hours of roasting and sweating in tropical humidity and warmth is far from enjoyable, but oh, SO worth it!