Mushroom Moments

My husband came into the house and said, "You've got to come see this!"  Apparently, the recent rain and hot weather, after months of drought, brought to life many mushrooms all over our property.  We did not have to go far to find them.  And they were of all shapes, sizes, and of several species (although I don't know how to identify them). If you can identify them, I'd love to hear from you.

 It is amazing how many there were....and they were everywhere!

 They were hiding under the grasses...and coming up in the middle of the road!

They were growing on dead logs and in the middle of the path through our woods.

See the small mushrooms in the center right.

Even live trees and fallen branches and freshly cut stumps were covered in the fungi of all kinds.

This sudden appearance of all these mushrooms must be a boon to wildlife as they try to find food after such a drought.

 
As my husband and I shared these moments hunting mushrooms, he kept pointing out more and more, asking me to take pictures of each one.  He was like a kid in a candy store--and became disappointed when I didn't take a picture of his mushroom find!  But I had already taken almost 100 pictures.

This was certainly an unusual mushroom explosion.  And, like my husband, I could not wait to share our find!  What an unusual year in nature it has been.