Part two- July 20 mushroom hunt

The tiny white flowers are Star Flowers.  The next picture is more of those orchids.  The colors were so varied.

The last picture is of a Shooting Star.  They are such unique flowers.  I never see more than three of them blooming in the same area.  The green shown here is because we were up above ten thousand feet.  It is much drier farther down where the snow melted off much earlier. 

I laid down in a meadow full of Horsetail Ferns.  Not only were they so intensely green they seemed to dye the air but my herbal insect repellent worked on the clouds of mosquitoes around them.  

Part One-The Yearly First Mushroom Hunt

We knew it was too early for mushrooms, too early, too dry, too bad!  We just didn't care!  Every year my friend Carrol and I start our first mushroom hunts with no real expectation of finding anything.  



We just want to be out of doors, soaking up the beauty and letting our problems stay at home!  Roland loves these trips and puts on ten miles to every five of ours.  Things have slowed down over the years but I still will stay out in the rain picking the first big find this season.  If there is one.  Mushrooms are tempermental things.

We found instead of fungi, orchids!  Where normally there would be ten of the beautiful miniatures out high altitude presents, this year there are hundreds.  There are three color combinations just in these two pictures.  None of these flowers is more than four inches tall if that gives you some idea of their daintiness.

The scarlet flowers in the picture beside my friend are Indian Paintbrush.  The higher the altitude the more intense the scarlet of the flower.  Part two will show some more of our trip.  It was a perfect day, warm and slightly breezy, clouding up in the afternoon, letting us watch a lightning storm of crisp strikes and sharp booms.

Cheetos, Where have you been?

A friend of mine mentions Cheetos frequently, well more frequently than anyone else I know.  He brought them back to my attention.  I'd been thinking about making him a Cheeto cake or Cheeto cookies.  I thought the orange glow could be worked in with an L.A. Tan motif.  I had visions of creative frosting!  

Yesterday I was opening up at work which involves being there alone in the best part of the day.  I water all our plants and work in our little garden for a bit every day.  It's the best time of the day in town, shaded and cool surrounded by our hanging baskets of flowers.  I was in the kitchen getting the water pot out when I saw them, an open bag of Cheetos.  They must have been bought by my boss as he eats junk like a fiend and never gains an ounce.  I hate him for that in spite of our 30 year long friendship!  I took a few and wandered out to water more.  

I was halfway hoping I'd see our squirrel.  I often feed him and on days I have something special he will eat out of my hand.  I was hoping Cheetos was something special.  Indeed he ran up to my, climbed my jeans and ate them in my lap holding each puffed kernel of chemical orange goodness!  However, to my surprise he only ate a couple.  I watched for quite a while as I crammed down the rest of the bag.  Nope, he didn't eat any more.  I had to go inside to wipe the grease and orange dye off my mouth and hands.  Wonder what he didn't like about those Cheetos?  Do you think it could have been a health issue?

TOMORROW I'M FREE!

I'm taking a day to myself to go fishing tomorrow.  I won't do it in this part of the creek, too high, too fast, but there are beaver ponds nearby this place.  It is in heavy forest and is cool, mossy and just beautiful.

Roland will run around like an idiot, laying in the creek, bringing my trees to play cath with, rolling in dead things, just generally hangin' in dog style!  I will fish and wander and later in the day eat the lunch I'll pack, fruit, coffee, and cheese.  I won't have a schedule or a goal.  I'll just roam idly, meditating when I hit the perfect place, napping if it gets too warm.

I need days like that to wash the stress of life out of my soul and to soak in some of the beauty.  I take herb bags and this time of year I'll have my mushroom stuff with me also.  Local lore insists you always find mushrooms if you have nothing to carry them in and I've returned home before with a shirt full of them hoping to get to the car before anyone sees me!  Not this year, this year there are always bags, knives and brushes with me!

Silver Plume Roses

So, the title  of this blog is misleading.  It's not about that beautiful picture of roses.  It's not about the history behind these bushes, the fact they came from England in the 1880s.  It's not about a calm day appreciating the beauty around me.

It's about me spending a day being a crabby whinny bitch.  What makes me do that?  Is it the constant stress of the last 10 years, always building, never breaking for more than a few days at a time?  Is it mood swings caused by the diabetes and/or RA?  How about from the medications I'm on, all of which list mood swings as a side effect?  Is it just because I am a horrible person and am mean, envious and crabby?

Is it because I am being screwed at work and find it hard to let it go?  Why should I even think about it if it won't change?  I need to get over it and just stop working so hard.  And I need to never say anything else about it.  I've made my complaints now it's time to shut up.  

Things aren't going to change for the better so I guess, once again, I have to.  And I need to get out of this funk quick.  I am being bombarded from all sides with criticism.  Some of it I am taking entirely too personally.  Some of the funk is just from working with someone who doesn't do their share.  That's not going to change but I can do less than I do.  I find that very hard but if I'm slacking also I can't get mad at others for doing it now can I?

So I'm hoping today is a better day and I'm working on it from my side.