Mushroom Huntress

As I write this post, Pyper and Daddy are out mushroom hunting, they text this to me "Found a purple one!!!"

Really look closely here not to miss it. 

I missed it the first time, apparently the shoe was for reference color only. 

Back in the Pacific Northwest on our favorite trails....and as summer has finally transitioned into fall, mushroom season is in full swing. Never have I noticed so many mushrooms, even the tiniest speck of one till we let the 37" Mushroom Huntress out. She loves the thrill of the hunt and the discovery of new colors, sizes, and textures. Since I'm a "tree" major, we are going to have to start researching the fungi world. At this point we look, but do not touch, which works for our purposes.

There has been a specific rotting log on our walks that has large shelf fungi as well as a couple other species. It's her favorite. The other day, to our dismay, someone removed, and took, all the beautiful shelfs that adorned our log. It was a difficult teachable moment for Pyper, as I tried to console her while telling her that is why we don't disturb the fungi, so that others may enjoy it too. She understood very clearly right then. 

She's learning to focus the camera in a new way to take photos of her finds so we can look them up once we find a good mushroom book, library here we come!

Part 1 -  can you name any of these?

Part 2 - or these?

Part 3 - other finds like our wands and woolly worms can keep us captivated for a while. 

Yup, life is getting fuller in many ways, Pyper no longer needs any assistance in hiking. She did about 2 miles the other day over the course of two hours! We are on the cusp of loosing nap time also, but I'm loving the changes that happen moment to moment with Pyper, can't wait till 5 minutes from now!