Rain

"Rainy days, we stay inside together.  The weather's wet.  The tea, is from Tibet."

The Art of Tea by Michael Franks

Rain be damned, I'm going outside.  Yes, after nearly two weeks of almost drying out, the rain has returned.  I can abide the soft, sprinkling kind of rain, for a day or two, but toad stranglers kind of rain, well, you know.  My pomegranate is loaded with blossoms this year.  I'm really happy about that.

Well, this lady beetle is having a walk about in the rain, doing her beetle thing, so I can too.  My blueberries rarely make it past my mouth.

I don't think I told you, but the heater ran out of propane this past winter in my greenhouse, and to a plant, the leaves and fruits fell off immediately.  The entire lot of mostly citrus plants, were within an hour or two of death before the sun came up. The leaves have returned and a few of the plants have even put on blossoms.  I might just get a citrus crop this year after all.

It has been so wet this spring that mushrooms have begun to grow on the deck outside.  Mind you, this never happens where I live.  Hot and dry summers.  A tropical storm is headed to Texas as I write this, then will swing up this way.  15 inches of rain predicted in Houston where there has been awful flooding and lots of rain too, but they are used to it.  We are not.  

The husband's at a conference this week in San Francisco.  I think I'll go paint.  Now where did I put my muse?

Wilding

Looking for wild edibles has never been more popular than it is now.  Even the hoity-toity TOWN AND COUNTRY magazine recently published a spread about it.  The bible for those whom like to find wild edibles is STALKING THE WILD ASPARAGUS.  Euell Gibbons was definitely before his time.  For instance, did you know that all parts of the day lily are edible?  More about this at the bottom, for it is very important for our children and grandchildren.

I found these beautiful mushrooms out by the woods yesterday.  They were various sizes, but these two beauties were at least 10 inches across.  I have never seen these around here before.  Upon further examination, I tore one apart.  Though there are gills, they are not seen from the underside of the fungi.

The underneath side was covered in pores.  

The entire mushroom looked like a giant hamburger bun.

I researched these fungi on Google and videos on youtube and have decided it is a King Bolete mushroom.  These are (besides truffles) the most desirable wild mushrooms out there.  They are hunted worldwide for their flavor and rarity.  So, did I cook it and eat it.  No!  You should never eat a mushroom that you are not 100% certain about.  As an aside, Euell Gibbons says that native Americans didn't eat wild mushrooms, probably because they knew of the possibility of poisonings.

Time to segue into why the whole wild edible thing is important for your children and grandchildren.  In just a generation, we have lost the ability to discern what is edible in nature.  If you read the MIT study a couple of weeks ago (Massachusetts Institute of Technology - and they don't come any smarter than they are), about the coming global economic collapse by 2030 and the depletion of the world's natural resources, i.e. energy, water etc. They even talk of millions dying, but I won't get into that. 2030 is 17 years away, that is unless there is the perfect storm; a trifecta of pandemic, natural disaster and/or war, which could make it happen sooner.  I don't even want to see what a super great depression would be like.  But, I am going to start making some changes; preparing as I am able.  Not like the nuts on National Geographic channel prepping for whatever. I do think it would be prudent to plant gardens, fruit and nut trees.  What do you think? Little Red Hen?   Look at Greece right now, the run on banks and if you have a 401K, it is going to be affected. Texas and the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations are suing the state of Oklahoma right now over water rights. The rumblings are there and it would be foolish to ignore them.