Such a Fun Guy

 You might recall that we experienced that elusive weather phenomenon known as a sunny weekend. So, I set out to do what I had been unable to accomplish so far this year: I mowed my grass. Which in itself is quite an accomplishment. All the necessary criteria were met—I had the proper weather to facilitate mowing AND my schedule allowed for it And my mower had both gas and a fully charged battery. The two previous sunny days we had this season I was far away from my yard or busy with grandchildren. Hooray for me! Mark helped me clear a path to free my mower from the confines of its winter storage, and off I went, earplugs in my ears and a song in my heart.

Since it was the first mow of the season and my grass was moderately overgrown—and by moderately I mean there was no need for the bailer attachment—I was carefully navigating the first pass around the perimeter when an unexpected sight stopped me short. I disengaged the mower blades, dropped the transmission into Park, jumped off of the mower and went tearing around the back of the house to where Mark was quietly enjoying the afternoon.

“Come with me,” I said, and grabbed his hand, towing him out to the abandoned mower. There, just in a head of the front mushroom was a single, baby morel. 

 

We made all the appropriate Ooh-ing and Ahh-ing sounds one makes to a baby mushroom before carefully harvesting it. “Good thing I didn’t run over it,” I said and then blinked. Underneath the mower deck I could see two more mushrooms.

Mark and I froze in our tracks, like two soldiers who had blissfully skipped into the middle of a minefield, only to realize that the next step could mean death and destruction—or at least squishing of the delicious fungi, which would be a gourmand’s tragedy. 

I think it took us about 20 minutes to carefully sweep the area clean of the tender treats before we decided it was safe to move the mower. I returned to my interrupted chore while Mark carefully searched the backyard for more mushrooms.

And that’s the story of how I went mushroom hunting over the weekend, accidently, unintentionally-- but quite successfully.