Amanita Muscaria

"Bill," I said in a little bit of my whiney voice,"would you please take me out to Vancouver Lake Park? " " Okay.", he says, the good sport that he is.

Vancouver Lake Park is a bit of a drive from our house. Not awful, but it is past the industrial areas, out to the wetlands, almost to the Columbia River. There is a pond that is off to the right of the main road that sometimes has egrets. There were a few there, but they were just too far away for my 300 to do much with it. The object of my trip was actually this mushroom. Last year we went to this park and we saw these mushrooms for the first time in our lives. Apparently they are quite common, but I've never seen them in person before, and neither has Bill. So last year I blipped one of these mushrooms and I really wanted to see if they were there again this year. They were! And if you want to know all about these 'shrooms, in fact maybe more than you really want to know...Wikipedia will tell you all about these interesting fungi.

I also have a lovely image of some trees at the park.

Today is Veteran's Day, but tomorrow is the observed holiday, as today is Sunday so they have it on Monday. Anyway, my father didn't serve in the military as he had polio as a child and Bill's dad was a bit older and he was never called to duty, but they did move out from North Dakota to work in the shipyards. That also helped to push back any call to active duty he might have gotten. My mother had several brothers who put in their time in WWII and I know several men who were in Viet Nam since that is my era. Bill was in the National Guard and practiced riot duty and never had to go to Viet Nam. I just wish there would be a generation that would not have any war to remember that had anything to do with them or their friends. I have Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the Civil War, WWI, WWII, and Viet Nam war sprinkled into my family tree, one way or another. And, if I could keep going back...probably The War of the Roses and a few Crusades too.

Humans.. what a strange lot. .What are ya gonna do?


"I dream of giving birth to a child who will ask, 'Mother, what was war?'"
-Eve Merriam, American poet and writer, 1916-1992