July 14, 2013
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Chanterelles

I took the dogs out for a walk in the woods this morning, and was fortunate to find around 30 chanterelles. They’re a little hard to see right now. There is a lot of leaf litter on the forest floor and the chanterelles are just peaking out from under it. I had hoped to find some edible boletes too, but mostly just found boletes with red pores – not for consumption. I saw one bug-eaten lobster, a few yellow Amanitas and some red russulas and that’s about it. The chanterelles were the highlight.

Chanterelle hiding in the leaves

Chanterelle hiding in the leaves

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July 14, 2013
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Boletes

While we were at Spindletree, we wandered off into some forest at the back of the property. The first thing we noticed were the deer flies and mosquitoes, which were unrelentings. The second thing we noticed was all the mushrooms in this little piece of forest. There were lots of boletes…

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…including the one below, which as huge, maybe 8 inches across the cap

DSC03452I also spotted one chanterelle, a variety or resupinates and polypores, and some yellow Amanitas (DO NOT CONSUME), like the one below.

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July 14, 2013
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Spindletree

Yesterday we visited Spindletree Gardens near Tamworth Ontario. It’s a little further afield than we would normally go for a daytrip, but it was a bus tour so we didn’t have to drive and that took a bit of the edge off the distance. Spindletree is the name Tom Brown and Susan Meisner gave to their extensive gardens. There are acres of gardens on this property and even after over 20 years of gardening, it’s a work in progress. The ponds and the kitchen gardens in particular were fantastic. The gardens have an architectural, almost formal backbone, but within the structure there is room for plenty of relaxed, less tightly controlled areas. There is a great deal of variety that even includes a cedar maze, a Victorian well cover and a promenade through a line of black locusts. Here are a few photos.

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July 10, 2013
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Learning Old Joe Clark

Old Joe Clark is a well-known old time tune from Kentucky. It is played in mixolydian mode in which the 7th note in the scale is lowered a half-tone, giving it what Aubrey Atwater refers to in the video below as that “Old Joe Clark-y” feel. There are loads of variations on this tune and loads of verses too. There is an excellent video on YouTube featuring Aubrey Atwater teaching the song, and I’ve picked it up from the video. It’s not too difficult to play. Some banjo players find the F chord shape to be awkward but I don’t seem to have too much trouble with it. This song also has one of the catchiest, most memorable melodies in the old time songbook, so once you learn it, this one is pretty easy to remember too. Here’s Aubrey Atwater teaching Old Joe Clark…

There are a number of videos on the YouTube machine featuring Ms. Atwater, and they’re all excellent. She also teaches clogging….check this out

She also plays mountain dulcimer with the Atwater-Donnelly Trio. Here’s The Spanish Lady. I love this tune.

July 10, 2013
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From the “I hate when that happens” department

Cyclist chased by wolf on Alaska Highway.

I once encountered a wolf many years ago while I was cross country skiing. I saw prints in the snow first. It was early morning and I was the only person out on the trail. I thought the prints seemed really big for a dog, but didn’t worry myself over it. A few minutes later I was skiing along the top of a ravine and in front of me a wolf came up the hill and parked beside the trail. I didn’t know what to do so I just kept on skiing as if I didn’t have a worry in the world. The wolf didn’t move. It just watched me pass. I was plenty un-nerved, I can tell you that.

I’ve seen coyotes a number of times, including right close to where we live in Long Branch, in the SW corner of the amalgamated Toronto. Once I was fly fishing the Nature Conservancy stretch of Silver Creek in Idaho. There are several paths there that find there way from the visitor centre to the stream. I was coming up for a bite of lunch and noticed a coyote on a path below me, a path that ran parallel to mine. I stopped. The coyote stopped. I continued walking, and so did the coyote. We played this game until I got close to the visitor centre and parking area and the coyote peeled off.

Never have I felt in imminent danger. This fellow in Alaska must have felt very scared when the wolf ripped a bag off the back of his bike!