TEST

After I returned from Scotland it was quite busy at work for several weeks. Than it was time to do some preserves for winter so I did not have too much time to visit trails. Weather was quite hot and humid. Walking through woods was not really overly pleasant and mushrooms seemed to be totally absent. I found some traces of old honey mushrooms indicating that I missed them this year. I am not really disappointed since honey shrooms are not on my list of favorites. Maitake is and it seems that I missed them completely, too. Finally, a weekend for mushrooming came. In some areas of the deciduous woods it seemed that nothing changed and it was hard to spot even traces of mushrooms. On the logs there was several clusters of oyster mushrooms, but all of them were too old to be used in kitchen. In other areas, mainly under maple, there was the whole big crop of blewitts . Definitely mushroom high on my list of edibles. This is a good opportunity to demonstrate several additional observation

Last three weeks I was in Scotland, more precisely Edinburgh, getting to know my first granddaughter Josephine Rae Redmond.  That was one of the best experiences of my life.     Of course, I could not help myself and snooped around checking for mushrooms. My daughters family lives near Edinburgh in somewhat country setting with lot of green areas. I was quite surprised how different mushrooms are. Before trip I did check several websites and some literature. They were all dealing with usual suspects: oyster, meadow mushroom, fairy ring mushroom, blewit, chicken of the woods etc. I did not find any of them (OK, maybe one blewit, one horse mushroom and several shaggy manes) Predominant environment is probably meadow, but I did visit some quite wooded areas with mature trees and river. In the meadows I found a number of waxcaps and great quantities of what I think is some species of paxillus. In the woodlands, under white birch I found great quantities of birch bolete (Leccinum scabrum).