Story of a Slime Mold

I was so excited to find this insect-egg slime mold in our neighborhood.

There were a few patches in two different sections of the bike path near our house that I've been keeping an eye on, and it's fun to see how it changes.

Believe it or not, the colony actually moves, in search of food and good conditions to live in.

You can see the path this one is taking (although I couldn't tell you if it's leaving or coming to the leaf.

And then, after a few drier days, look what happened to one of them--totally getting hard and darker colored.

To the point that it doesn't even look like the same species.

But this is the same pinecone as the second picture, just a little over a week later.

And while we're looking at interesting things I've found along the bike path, these mushrooms and beautiful! 

So delicate. I'm pretty sure they're pleated inkcaps.

And a few other cute ones

And finally, first buds of spring are already coming out on the almond trees.

Van Progress

We've spent a couple more days on the van this month--working on getting the actual floor laid.

It's taken a lot of measuring and precise cutting for the edges.

Daddy-o is pretty good with the saw, though, and it's looking good.

And while he got that started, I worked on putting in the first insulation. Eventually, it will all have a covering, but I have just been filling the larger cavities.

My huge crochet hook is finally coming in handy! I haven't used it since Bean was a baby and I learned how to make a crocheted rag rug with it.

It's a work in progress, but it's coming along!

And Bean and I spent another afternoon installing the part under our front seats so we can do this: 

We've got a swivel seat! Turns out the driver seat needs a little extra fix so it can clear the emergency brake, and since I don't trust us to take apart the brake and get it put back together correctly, we're going to hire that one out, but the swivel is in place and we do have one seat we can turn around!

Views Around the 'Hood

January has been a month of beautiful skies--whether its patchy clouds over the creek,

Or pink tinged sunsets. . .

and brilliant sunrises.

I love the light at the edges of each day.

And the clouds really grab the color.

They've been pretty intense--lots of cloudy days, with a little rain here and there.

It's been fun to get out and see it change.

And when the sun is out, it's that much more exciting.

Wet Day for Polo

The rain doesn't really affect the players, but for the families watching it makes for a chilly, wet day of hanging out by the pool.

But between games, we went for a walk in the neighboring park and found some fun fungi, so I'm not complaining!

There were some good sized ones!

And beautiful lichen.

Lots of patches of these guys. Someday I'll learn how to identify some of what I'm seeing, but my apps don't always do very well, especially with the typical shaped white/tan ones, so I really need to go out with an expert who can teach me what to look for.

Red! Always one of my favorites.

And these ruffly ones of the trees were so beautiful.

Also chased down this yellow-rumped warbler. I could hear it before I saw it, but then it stayed put long enough in lighting that I could actually see the yellow color.

Watching a kid do something he loves, and getting to look for birds and mushrooms makes for a pretty perfect day, even in the rain.

 

Mushroom Madness, 2024

This is always one of the favorite field trips--because who doesn't love a good mushroom hunt?

As always, I have my field trip buddy with me. I really do have the best job.

And we had a great turn out with a lot of kids, and parents and grandparents, excited to see what we could find.

This year, along with the fungi, we found a couple of amphibians (pretty sure this is an Ensatina salamander),

several banana slugs,

which are always a hit.

The kids especially loved getting to see this one eating!

Found some cool lichens, too.

They're everywhere in these healthy forests.

And a few early wildflowers, but we still have a couple months before those are out in force.

Mostly, it was all about the mushrooms! And if you don't care about mushroom pictures, then you can skip the rest--I'm going to go ahead and throw all my pictures up because I was blown away by the variety we found on this hike (Purisima Creek from the Skyline Dr. side.)  So here you go, mushrooms and other fungi: