shrooms and stuff....

slept in but finally got out and had a lovely walk today. so many mushrooms out there. great to just stroll and snap some photo's. took the dogs to campbell airstrip and stayed on the main trails. had heard of an owl hanging out by the homestead trail so wandered that way. view trail to coyote trail which hooks up with homestead. lucky for me, the owl appeared. guess the thing has been spending a few weeks in the area about this time for the past several years. always love the owls. very cool birds, but i don't run into them very often.

tossed in a few catch up photo's as well, of course, i'm starting to forget which pictures i've already posted and which ones i haven't. surprised this guy in my shed. he was happily partaking of the bird seed that i'd left in the bag in there. it's now more secured to prevent any future feedings. he's kinda cute though.

caught this rainbow on the way to work one night. we've had quite a bit of rain, but that also means some rainbows which are always awesome.

this squirrel was angry with me on the winner creek trail several weeks back. they are just so dang cute.

this creek is by homestead trail..there is a small bridge over the creek and i'd heard about the owl hanging here. this is where we turned around today. these trails all interconnect. love anchorage for it's amazing trail system.

back to today. lucky for me i didn't get rained on. was cloudy and threatening, but no drops fell.

there are so many types of mushrooms and fungi up here. i have this little book but i often have a difficult time identifying them. the book doesn't have any particular order that i've noticed that makes it easier.

these are some sort of fungi, but not mushrooms above.

my day started with the doorbell ringing. turned out the gci cable guys needed access to the backyard for some cable line work. they found thier way back there about the time i'd let blossom out to do her duty. she quite enjoyed being joined by 4 guys and got lots of attention. i popped out to see if she was a bother, but the guys said "no, she's adorable". smitten...she has that effect on people.

this one, the picture at the top is also the same kind, it's called "the sickener". probably means that i wouldn't put it in a salad.

watching, "the kids are alright".

had plans to get some shopping done, but wandered the trails too long to make that happen. there is always online shopping though. bought some new scrubs. had rewards with amazon.com so bought some more dvd's to replace some old vhs tapes.

these red spotted ones are called fly agaric. rarely kills anyone, but it is known to make people pretty goofy! they seem like the mushroom you think of, alice in wonderland type. i like em...they are pretty.

gotta love a spotted shroom.

i love all my local trails too as they never bore me. with how rapidly the seasons change here it seems like each time you walk these trails it's new and exciting. i love the big trips like point adolphus. it's great to get out and explore new parts of alaska, but i still do love the day to day hikes. it's amazing what you get to see if you just get outside and walk.

joggers and bikers miss all these little details. photography helps me to look down and up and under things and over things. the beauty is in the details. some days i've wondered do i believe in god or don't i. i still consider myself agnostic, not because i don't care, but because i can't prove or disprove the existance of a god. for me all these details make me more of a believer than not. one must have faith to believe but i think one must also have faith to disbeleive.

my oldest brother is the one that suggested that those who are agnostic just don't care. i've learned over the years and after many painful arguments with this brother to not take the bait. he wants to argue, he likes to argue, and he always argues to win. the best option is to just not argue with him. i do like the idea of there being someone overseeing this madness on our earth. i don't like that if there is a god though, this god doesn't intervene when i think an intervention would be helpful... so i tend toward believe when i 'm in nature and see all the vast beauty that is out there. so many details, it's amazing. i tend not to believe when huge disasters occur or humans get totally out of control and start killing each other off. it's all madness.

love all the lines and textures of mushrooms.

yep..i walk around covered in mud all the time. i'm a bit rough on my clothes.

lots of bears tracks of late on the trails, of course, i've been venturing back to bicentennial park, the bears hang out there.

kitten bonding time. never sure the dogs are as thrilled or if they are just tolerant.

another day, another trail in the campbell airstrip park. this is an "active runway". i have actually seen one plane land there. lena and i were reminded of it's active status when we dared walk on the runway. after 9-11 they started upgrading that runway.

a few of the girls on the winner creek trail.

i'm not a tram rider. a kid fell off the platform a few weeks back. lucky the kid didn't land in the fast moving creek below or he would never have survived. i tend to avoid heights, especially over fast moving water. there were a few hanging bridges on the chilkoot trail that i wasn't too keen on either.

blossom on the winner creek trail.

more rainbow action!

a lake that i stop by on the way from kincaid to drop off rio's big bag of poop! was a pretty day so i took a picture.

and another pretty day in the bog.

signs of fall in the bog.

little bridges are so cool.

back to the shrooms...

a few leaves are making the change already.

made some homemade chicken noodle soup last night. i occasionally buy those pre-cooked chickens at the grocery store and then cook the leftovers up as soup. nummy! just like mom used to make. still miss her. simple things like foods bring her back for a moment.

would still rather just be able to call and chat. nobody loves ya like your mom does. of course, then i think of all those poor people who never had that kind of loving relationship with thier moms. so sad.

will have to go mushroom walking again this next week. everyone else seems to be hunting for berries. the berries are all getting ripe....you must compete with the bears for those. i'll have to get outside and test out my raspberry bush, see if they are more ripe now. would love to plant some salmonberries. loved those in ketchikan and they just aren't as common around anchorage.

these are little fungi. in ketchikan we called them bear bread. not sure why, but there are many varieties of these as well.

so pretty.

it's really amazing what variety one finds on just one walk. i know i was out there for a few hours, but really, and i didn't even take pictures of all the types of mushrooms i saw.

nto sure what these little guys are. there are many tiny mushrooms out there. will have to get down and dirty with the macro. hard to hold the camera steady enough for macro's.

loved how this bark was splitting and the fungi or lichen or whatever that green stuff is.

this shroom is really cool.

love the colour on the top.

these may be mica caps. supposedly they are edible. of course, with how poorly i id mushrooms i think randomly thinking i could eat any wild mushroom could be dangerous. lucky for me i've never really been a fan of the mushrooms. love to photograph them, but when it comes to eating them, i take a pass.

here are a few pictures of the owl i took today. took many pictures but the lighting wasn't the best for getting him. oh well. tried the red eye remover thing on the computer and it doesn't work on owls eyes apparently.

was standing almost directly under him here.

lucky he didn't decide to take a dump on me.

these two came out the best though still not the best lighting. was great to just watch him for a bit out there though.

love the greys in his feathers.

mushrooms do metamorphasize and look totally different. i have those shaggy manes in my front yard. some find those really tasty i guess. i can go out and see that they have totally changed overnight though. have no idea what this guy is.

i'm thinking my shroom book is crap though. most of the ones i took pictures of today just don't look like anything in there. these below look like they are rotting all the time.

just finished the movie. was decent. doubt i'd rush out and see it over and over again. the sperm donor is quite pleasant to look at.

these were so delicate looking.

more bear bread stuff.

liked the non-edible berries with this old rotting stump

these ones are really cool looking. don't you think?

another fall leaf.

soon enough all the trees will have changed over and then the leaves fall and then..the snow falls.

at first i took the pictures of the shrooms with my little point and shoot, then i brought out the big guns.

it's easy to be a lazy photographer and those point and shoots actually take some pretty decent pictures. when people see my pictures they often ask what camera i use, what settings, what this what that...it always cracks me up.

those who have an eye can take decent pictures with any camera and now with the cameras they have now and the computer programs they have most people can get decent pictures.

still, to get those pictures half the game is getting out there. can't get these from inside the house.

walking is still my favorite thing.

liked the water on this web. thought i'd try out the macro with it. will take more practice with the macro to get better pictures.

fun to have the macro though. i'm enjoying it. wanted it for these mushrooms and ice in the winter. those were the things that most made me want to purchase this lens.