The Other Buddha

Today's walk took me past the Rockefeller gardens again, and as I'd hoped the gates were open but nobody was around. Technically, that's because the garden wasn't open to the public yet, but since I had come hiking out of the woods instead of driving up to the main.entrance I was able to wander about for a little without attracting any attention. I felt a little sneaky, so only stayed long enough to appreciate this Buddha Shakyamuni and follow a butterfly around for a bit. This statue is a little smaller than the other one, which is actually outside the garden walls among the trees.

Another highlight of today's walk was an encounter with the bleeding tooth fungus found in the extra. There were actually tons of mushrooms of all sorts out today, but I think most people would agree this one is distinctive. Plucking it off this mossy rock I was able to squeeze quite a bit of the juice out into my mouth and found it quite bitter, but curiously invigorating. Apparently it made the whites of my eyes turn very red and I got lots of strange looks from other hikers as I loped along the trail, occasionally propelling myself forward with my arms as well as my legs. I decided to save some for after the moon comes out tonight.

Ok I just made that last part up.