GIFTS OF A WET SPRING

We received yet another quick shower this afternoon.  Temps were around the 95 degree mark, dropped to the mid 80's during the rain and then soared back to the mid 90's with humidity that almost scorched my face when I opened the door.  As soon as the door was fanned a couple of times as I came inside from the porch, all the windows were frosted with condensation. You just gotta love Mississippi weather.  Thank you Lord for the invention of air conditioning!

The best part about a summer shower every few days is the beauty that it brings forth from the ground.  The lowly yucca plant is displaying massive spires of wedding bell shaped flowers that are rarely seen in such abundance on dry, scorching hot summer days.

My agapanthus have not bloomed like this and lasted so long in many years.

 The blackberries are plump and lush.  

Various fungus and mushrooms are popping up all over the forest floor.  They are so fragile, mysterious and interesting.  This one looks like sheer white lace.

This strange mush is as black as can be and looks like a chunk of lava.

This one actually was a chocolate color with the underside looking more like a porous sponge than a mushroom. 

This one appears to be a tiny, shiny, opalescent umbrella with sequins and pearls attached at random.    

This chubby little beauty had the look of being painted by deep pink watercolors.  The underside was just about the same texture as the crown.  It is definitely not the average mushroom.

The annual show of color in the back woods by the butterfly milk weeds has dwindled somewhat.  They have been blooming their little heads off for over a month, thanks to the abundant moisture.

Thank you, Lord, for the beauty you bless us with daily. 

FREDDIE FUNGUS

Thanks to some much needed rain the last few days, I had a grand time tromping around in my pine thicket with the trusty camera, sweating my buns off in the heavy humidity and high 90's, in search of the mushrooms which popped up all under the trees in the damp blanket of pine straw.  I wallowed around on the ground with the fire ants and mud and loved every minute of it.  Isn't God just awesome?

Our grand kids all detest eating mushrooms and so all mushrooms (those we eat and those we take pics of) are known as Freddie Fungus at our house in an effort to get them to try the spaghetti sauce with mushrooms in it.  Actually some of them have tried Freddie Fungus sauce and found it pretty tasty. 

PENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS

Do you just despise all the junk that gets hung on the fridge?  In an effort to cut down on the clutter, I came up with an idea that uses found/free magnetic pieces.  Every so often we get a free telephone book and it always has an advertisement for a local lawyer (ambulance chaser) or some other type of business which is on a 5" x 5" magnetic piece.   So, I print out current pictures of the grands and attach them with scrapbooking adhesive dots to the free magnetic pieces.  The kids love to see themselves on the fridge, the little ones love to play with them and constantly rearrange.  It would be such a shame to throw old Richard Schwartz in the trash and waste a good magnet.  Several years I managed to come home with about 50 of the magnets from my office phonebooks and used them for children's Sunday School projects.