Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: Pholiota?

On 8 August 2015, I decided to drive SW of the city for a while. It was a Saturday, so I thought I would go and check if there were other people parked at Brown-Lowery Provincial Park. I had more or less stopped going into the forest there by myself, especially the last couple of years, knowing that Cougar and Bears can be seen there. All I have seen - so far! - is a large Moose on a couple of occasions. The place gives me the creeps, so I usually just walk through the trees closest to the parking lot. Just a minute or two after entering the forest near the parking lot, I flushed a Grouse, which scared the life out of me. They tend to wait, hidden, and then when you are almost by them, they suddenly "explode" out of the bushes, making ones heart beat fast. The opposite side of the trail, where I usually find a few mushrooms, had pools of water after the two devastating rain and hail storms that we had had recently. With several cars in the small parking lot, I decided to go just a short way into the park, trying to forget that animals can "smell fear". I did come across a few quite nice mushrooms, but with such a dry, hot summer, this season so far had not been good for fungi. I'm not sure, but I think the mushrooms in this photo may be Pholiotas. I know very little about fungi, so would never say if a species is edible or not. After reading a question below, I did read up a little and I gather that some Pholiota species are edible, while others are mildly poisonous. As always, never eat any kind of mushroom unless you are an expert! The second time my heart started beating really fast was when I was trying to focus on a mushroom and I was aware of a deep, huffing kind of sound coming from right behind me. Turning around, dreading what I might see, I discovered it was just a small Red Squirrel, low down on his/her tree, just a couple of feet away from me. I've never ever heard a Squirrel make this kind of sound before! Sounded rather like what I imagine a bear might sound like, ha. Almost back at the edge of the forest, I was happy as can be to hear quite a commotion that I recognized as being American Three-toed Woodpeckers. There were three of them high up in a tree, with at least one of them being a noisy, hungry juvenile that was feeding itself but every now and then would want the adult to feed it. This species is uncommon in Alberta, year round, so it's always a treat to see one - and especially three.

This photo was taken almost a month ago, on 6 August 2016, when I went on a mushroom foray at Rod Handfield's acreage. Though this was a fungi day (well, morning), we also came across a few wildflower species, too. I found the whole day physically and mentally exhausting (a mix of excitement and stress). It was a great day, too, thanks to friend, Sandy! She very kindly picked me up around 8:15 am and we drove SW of the city and SW of Millarville to Rod Handfield's acreage. For a number of years, this has been one of my favourite places to explore, as Rod's forest tends to be full of all sorts of beautiful treasures. It is one of the two best places that I know for mushrooms, remembering that I only get to a few places anyway, the other being Brown-Lowery Provincial Park. This year has turned out after all to be great for fungi, thanks to all the endless, torrential rain we have been getting the last few weeks, and are still getting, apart from the scattering of sunny days. This year has so far had such weird weather - a very mild, dry winter, a spring that was as dry and hot as a summer, and now a wet, thundery summer. We were expecting this year to not be good for mushrooms. We met up with a group of other interested people, most of whom we didn't know, and we searched the land for fungi. Right at the start, I was telling Sandy that on the last visit there (or one of the last), maybe four years ago (17 August 2010, so six years ago - how time flies!), we had seen a beautiful Amanita muscaria / Fly agaric mushroom growing just a few feet from the start of the hike. Sure enough, there were several growing in exactly the same spot on 6 August, which was so exciting. Later in the walk, we saw two other patches of absolute beauties of this hallucinogenic, poisonous species, including ones that were at a younger stage. I'm not sure, but the mushrooms in this photo could be Pholiotas? The rain was spitting during our walk, and the forest was so dark, but amazingly, some of my photos came out well enough. Thanks so much, Karel, for organizing and leading this trip and for sharing your knowledge with us! I have to admit that I always find a walk like this rather frustrating. It doesn't work too well when you have people who are photographers and people who are interested in picking mushrooms to eat : ) The latter tend to always be ahead and by the time you catch up to them, you can't see what has already quickly been picked and of course it is usually difficult or impossible to get a photo. This was private land, not a provincial or national park, and some of us know the owner, Rod Handfield. In places like the national or provincial parks, one is not allowed to remove anything from the area - but some people still do. You see people with large baskets full of mushrooms picked for cooking! This is especially an east European 'thing'. They have grown up with this tradition and seem to know which fungi are edible or not. Some poisonous mushrooms can look very similar to edible ones, which is why the warning is to never, ever eat any kind of fungus unless you are an expert! As our local Naturalist always says: "All fungi are edible, some only once!" Sandy and I left the group around lunchtime, to go looking at vehicles at one of the dealerships. In the last year and a half, I have had to put far too much money into repairs for my poor old 17+ year old car and finally, I knew that I had no choice but to replace it. The muffler and catalytic converter had just died and, instead of spending a fortune on repair (estimate was $4,999), I decided I would rather put that money towards a new vehicle. I had been thinking about replacing it the last few years, but now, enough is enough! Update re: car. Yay, I finally picked up my new car five days ago, on 29 August 2916, after waiting three weeks for it to arrive. Now I just have to learn how to drive it. There is a huge difference between a 1999 and a 2016 vehicle!

An overcast morning today, 22 October 2015, with a temperature of 10C. The sun is supposed to shine this afternoon - I'm just hoping it won't rain, as I washed my car yesterday and vacuumed it out, ready for the arrival of winter. I then dropped it off at my Tire place to get my winter tires put on today - thought that if I left it any longer, too many people would be making appointments to get the same done. Another thing completed this week was having two people come and remove everything from my tiny back yard. It had become one tangled jungle mess and, as I can't bend or kneel to do anything, it had been become totally out of control. It now looks completely bare and wonderfully tidy! That big, black cloud that has been hanging over my head for years has finally gone, and it feels so good. On 8 August 2015, I decided to drive SW of the city for a while. It was a Saturday, so I thought I would go and check if there were other people parked at Brown-Lowery Provincial Park. I had more or less stopped going into the forest there by myself, especially the last couple of years, knowing that Cougar and Bears can be seen there. All I have seen - so far! - is a large Moose on a couple of occasions. The place gives me the creeps, so I usually just walk through the trees closest to the parking lot. Just a minute or two after entering the forest near the parking lot, I flushed a Grouse, which scared the life out of me. They tend to wait, hidden, and then when you are almost by them, they suddenly "explode" out of the bushes, making ones heart beat fast. The opposite side of the trail, where I usually find a few mushrooms, had pools of water after the two devastating rain and hail storms that we had had recently. With several cars in the small parking lot, I decided to go just a short way into the park, trying to forget that animals can "smell fear". I did come across a few quite nice mushrooms, but with such a dry, hot summer, this this season has not been good for fungi. I'm not 100% sure, but I think this might be a Pholiota? There were two or three clusters of these mushrooms around the base of trees. When I went back to the park on 23 August, there were none of these left. The second time my heart started beating really fast was when I was trying to focus on a mushroom and I was aware of a deep, huffing kind of sound coming from right behind me. Turning around, dreading what I might see, I discovered it was just a small Red Squirrel, low down on his/her tree, just a couple of feet away from me. I've never ever heard a Squirrel make this kind of sound before! Sounded rather like what I imagine a bear might sound like, ha. Almost back at the edge of the forest, I was happy as can be to hear quite a commotion that I recognized as being American Three-toed Woodpeckers. There were three of them high up in a tree, with at least one of them being a noisy, hungry juvenile that was feeding itself but every now and then would want the adult to feed it. This species is uncommon in Alberta, year round, so it's always a treat to see one - and especially three.