Toadstool or Mushroom?

 Any Amateur Mycologists out there? Or even a Professional Mycologist, perchance?

There has been a lot of damp humid weather recently, and the fungus population has sprouted overnight. Does anyone recognise these? There are lots of them growing in an area of spare ground at the back of a nearby house. Some were only an inch across, and others as wide as 4 inches. 

Could be Common Agrocype  or Spring Agrocype. Apparently edible, but I'm definitely not going to try it.

And a bit further along, there were these tiny little mushrooms hiding along the edge of the sidewalk. About the size of a little fingernail.

I think this might be Pear-shaped Puffball, Lycoperdon pyriforme. Large clumps of these small puffballs can be found on logs or growing in woodchips along park trails. Puffballs have a small pore on the top where the spores are released. When a large rain drop lands on a mature puffball the force is sufficient to release a "puff" of spores. The spongy filling helps the puffball regain its shape after being compressed.

Spidey, is that you?

This morning the wet grass had lots of these delicate spider webs decorated with tiny dewdrops. This one was about 4 inches across, but there were many more smaller ones.

What are they? What kind of spider makes these webs?

I had to ask know-it-all Professor Google, and he told me that these are not really spider webs. The webs are branching mycelium of dollar spot fungus, Sclerotinia homeocarpa, often appearing on lawns in warm and damp summer mornings.  These webs disappear when the grass dries, but the fungus is still there. It causes brown spots about the size of a dollar coin, and can grow to cover much larger areas. There has been a lot of rain over the last few days, and the lawn watering system has been working too, so the dollar spot fungus is probably feeling very happy!

The Dead End of Town

Sometimes my morning walk takes me through the local cemetery. It's cool and shady and quiet there, with not many people about. And if there are people walking their dogs, they are always happy to stop and chat. 

I don't think I'm the only person who likes to wander among the graves and read the names and dates of former residents of town. The earliest legible memorial stone here dates from 1849, but there are probably a few earlier than that.

Nathan Forsyth 1852-1948 was the builder of many of the Victorian red brick houses that still stand on  the older streets. In fact, I lived in a Forsyth house for many years. He also built the United Church, the Presbyterian Church and the original Fire Hall. His grave memorial is in the shape of a house with windows and doors.

There are some lovely stone angels marking graves. But they look so sad. A lasting memorial to a family's grief.

Walking around the newer section of the cemetery I came across many familiar family names of friends and neighbours. One was Eddie Luther, the original "Eye in the Sky" traffic reporter for CFRB. He was a radio pioneer, the first to report on Toronto rush hour traffic from his helicopter starting in 1961.

Bee in the Brick Update: This was a couple of weeks ago. The hole in the brick is now completely sealed, so I'll be watching for a happy event.

Lucy

I just returned from spending a few days chicken sitting. And egg collecting. And garden, dog, cat and goose sitting while YoungerSon and family visited my daughter-in-law's aunt. I took lots of photos with my trusty little point-and-shoot camera, and then stupidly left the camera behind when I came home. Oh well.... I'll get it next time I visit again in a couple of weeks.

Meanwhile, here's the only photo I can show you of Lucy the goose. She's an Embden goose, 3 months old and is getting bigger every day. She is very used to people being around and likes to have her head scratched and her wings petted. She loves her blue bucket of water, and sometimes tries to get into it, not an easy task seeing she is quite a bit bigger than the bucket. 

Snoozing with your head on the edge of a bucket seems hard but she manages to look very relaxed.

She's got an old kiddie pool that she splashes about in.... sorry, no photos until I get the camera back!

A couple of photos from my container garden on my deck. These tomatoes are Oxheart variety, a heritage tomato. They are really lumpy, strange shapes, but I'm told they are very tasty.  I'll be able to taste them when they're ready to harvest in August.

And my Scarlet Runner beans.... doing really well, full of flowers that I hope will provide lots of beans.... and the bonus is that the hummingbirds love the red flowers.

Lots of vigorous growth this year, probably due to the well rotted cow poo that was dug into the soil in the spring.