The end of July was very wet here in southern Louisiana. It seemed to rain every day. Sometimes it rained all day and sometimes just in the afternoon. Days and weeks before were very dry, so we needed the rain.
Once the rain started to fall everything started to grow. The grass and weeds seemed to shoot up overnight. Plants that looked wilted weren’t droopy anymore. And the ginger plants produced blossoms that filled even the damp air with fragrance. Grapefruit and satsumas stopped falling off the trees and the banana plants started standing taller with their blossoms and small bananas.
Between showers and in the heavy humid air that is like a steam bath I decided to look for mushrooms in the yard. I first went to the front yard where there are a lot of fallen leaves. I found many mushrooms in little clusters. They look almost velvety and were red in color. I walked around to other parts of the yard and found other mushrooms which I photographed. The more I looked the more variety I saw.
The last place I photographed mushrooms was the old tree stump in front of the chicken coop. On top were several different types of mushrooms. Down the side of the trunk were half plate mushrooms that project horizontally out from the trunk. I don’t know if this is a type of mushroom or some other type of fungus. I have seen them as large as a dinner plate.
Stump with mushrooms
The side of the stump
The rain was beginning to fall again, so back inside I went. Moving forward in time and we have had a couple of days with no rain. I decided to trim the roses where I unknowingly tangled with some poison ivy. Slathered up with anti-itch cream on my hands and fore arms I decided to revisit the tree stump in front of the chicken coop to see if any of the mushrooms were still there. There were mushrooms, but they looked different from the mushrooms that were there during the rain. I raised my camera to take a picture and…Ahhh, fire ants all over my feet and ankles. The photo I snapped is a bit fuzzy, but now you know why. I applied more anti-itch cream.
Stump after a few dry days
Since the weather has been dry most of the mushrooms are gone now. The other day I did see a faerie ring. I haven’t seen one of those in quite a while, but it is good to know they are still around.
To begin you should again draw the egg shape for the body. The second step is to add a triangle overlapping the base of the triangle to the egg at the pointy end of the egg. Place the triangle closer to the top of the egg instead of just at the end. If you think of the egg as a clock, place the triangle at about one or two o’clock. The third step is to add the head by drawing a circle around the tip of the triangle. Then add a small triangle to the left side of the circle. The small triangle represents the beak. Now you can add the comb on top of her head and the waddle below the beak, oh, and don’t forget her eye. To add Red’s tail draw a triangle overlapping the bottom of the triangle onto the egg. You can add a wing on the side of her body. To draw legs add a “w” at the belly of her body and then draw the two diagonal lines for each leg. Remember that Red’s legs bend toward her tail, not her head. For her feet you will need to draw one short line for a toe at the back and three lines for toes at the front of the foot. Great job. Red is looking back over her tail.