Pacific Northwest Plants: Amanita

Amanita

Today I took a walk to the mall. On the way back, I found mushrooms bursting through the soil in the parking lot planters.

I'm not much at mushroom identification, but I found an excellent site called Rogers Mushrooms. There is a feature you can use for visual identification.

Based on a search through the site, I believe these are different stages of a mushroom called Amanita. It starts out as a firm, bulbous cap that is white to cream. The upper surface is scaly. As it matures, some of the caps get an orange tint, especially those in direct sunlight.

It was a sunny, warm morning after two days of heavy rain. The mushrooms were growing at the base of pine trees in planter soil that was littered with tree mulch. The mature caps became concave, splitting the flesh in several places.

Do you know mushrooms? Maybe you can help me with the identification. -- Margy

Stick on the Job

Do you know any working pets? Many are high profile such as guide dogs, hearing dogs and guard dogs. You have sled dogs, herding dogs and hunting dogs. You even have therapeutic horses. But you don't often hear about working cats.

What are some jobs for cats? Well, there's the tried and true mouser. Or maybe you'll find a cat "working" in a shop, greeting guests at a B&B or helping out in a nursing home or hospital. All of those pats and pets are good for the patient as well as the working feline.

After twelve years of leisure, our cat Stick Tail has a job. In 2007, he moved to Bellingham to live with my 91-year young mom. When we are in town, we get visiting rights. But the majority of the time he is on the job up in her condo. Here are some of his tasks:

• Begging for food even if the dish isn't empty
• Sitting next to her to watch the Wheel of Fortune
  
• Crawling in bed after breakfast so it can't be made
• Staring at the fireplace until it is started
• Giving her ball of yarn a big whack
• Sleeping, sleeping and more sleeping

It's a demanding job, but someone has to do it. Who better than Stick (Mom calls him Kitty Cat). Stick now has an even more important role. His picture helped Mom stay grounded through four long weeks of hospitalization and rehab following back surgery. Now that she's home, his furby kind of love is just what the doctor ordered.

Do you know a working pet? Let us hear his or her story. - Margy

Clearing Clouds

Fall storms bring rain and wind, but they are followed by lovely clearing clouds.

Watch them in action.

Thanks for stopping by. -- Margy

Farther Up the Main Book Launch

Wayne has just completed a new book in his Coastal BC Stories series. It follows in the footsteps of his second book about backcountry exploration, Up the Main. Naturally, it is entitled Farther Up the Main and focuses on our favourite place on earth, Powell River, BC. In it you will read stories about the people and places that make this region so unique.

You are invited to join us at a free book launch event.

Farther Up the Main

Friday, October 22, 7:00 pm at
Coles the Book People
Town Centre Mall

Go to www.PowellRiverBooks.com for ordering information.

Print for $16.95
Kindle for $3.99
Ebook $3.99

If you already have a book from the Coastal BC Stories series, bring it with you. Wayne would love to autograph it for you. Hope to see you there! -- Margy

Paddling for Salmon

Wayne went out on opening day to try his hand at salmon fishing. No luck from shore, so he thought maybe a kayak would give him a better chance. He found a Dirigo Angler by Johnson Outdoors at Wholesale Sports in Burlington, WA. And the timing was perfect. It was $759.99, but with a 30% off sale, plus a 5% military discount, not bad.

For his first paddling fishing adventure, Wayne picked the Skagit River. He already knew it from our kayak camping trip last August. He launched at Sedro Woolley's Riverfont Park boat ramp to float and fish his way down stream. But just after he got started, he snagged his line. The speed of the river ripped all the line off his real, leaving nothing to catch a big one.

This section of the Skagit is wide and fairly fast. When we paddled it in the summer, we rarely saw anyone in a boat or on shore. Now with salmon season open, there are lots of people everywhere. I met Wayne at Burlington's busy Roger "Gus" Tjeerdsma boat launch to give him a ride back to Sedro-Woolley to pick up his car.

For more information about fishing in Washington State, go to their website.

Do you have a favourite fishing hole? Is it secret, or can you share? -- Margy

Preserving: Annual Tally

Tracy is a blogging friend over at Home [in] stead: Voluntary Simplicity One Step at a Time. She did a recent post called Tally Ho! in which she summarized her annual preserving accomplishments. Using Tracy's example, I'd like to share my preserving successes for the season.

Canning:

This is my second year at canning. I was quite fearful at first, but everything came out fine and we enjoyed our products. This year, I bought more half-pints (250 ml) and pint (500 ml) jars to expanded a bit:

• 5 half-pints tomatoes
• 4 half-pints hot pickled beans with banana peppers
• 6 half-pints blackberries (wild)
• 2 pints and 4 half-pints blueberries (store bought)
• 5 half-pints strawberry jam (store bought)
• 4 half-pints blueberry/rhubarb jam

Drying:

I've dried herbs several times. This year I added Swiss Chard. My first try was in the oven at the condo. It worked fine, but I wanted a way to do it up at the cabin. I experimented with air drying and it was a success, if a bit labour intensive. So far I have three pint jars full ready for soups and stews.

Freezing:

My freezer space is very limited, both at the condo and the cabin. On my last visit to town I froze combo packs of tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, and celery (left over store bought) for winter soups.

Storing:

I cured and stored red onions and potatoes. The onions hang in the downstairs guest room for several months. I wrap my potatoes in newspaper and use plastic trays to store them under the guest bed (my cabin's cool spot) where they last all winter. Carrots and beets stay in the ground to keep them fresh and crispy.

I know this isn't a large stash of food for winter, but it's fun to pull out a few things I preserved myself. Each year my cache gets larger, so who knows what the future will hold. Did you do any preserving this year? How did it go? - Margy

Fall's Early Glow

Night is coming quicker this time of year. And with it, comes a warm early glow.

We don't often get sunset colours in our little aqua valley, but this night was an exception.

I love how the salmon coloured sky reflects in the water. -- Margy