Wee Mushrooms

When August arrives with warm days and afternoon rain-showers, the mushrooms start popping up in the woods. My oldest son and I spent a day in Rocky Mountain National Park on Monday and enjoyed hunting for photographic specimens! This tiny little pair of mushrooms was spotted under a tiny seedling fir tree, only about 8" high. They tucked in under the lowest branch with moss for a carpet. The longest fir needles are about 1/2 to 3/4 inch long, which helps to give an idea of the tiny scale of this woodland scene! There should be a tiny mythical little critter peering out around the stems, don't you think?


The Fly Amanitas were particularly beautiful. Such fairytale mushrooms!


Though beautiful, the Fly Amanita is also poisonous. For my part, I'm content to enjoy their beauty and imagine gnomes and mice and other little critters under their vivid umbrellas!


I love the depth of color as well as the texture of the white spots on these.


This little overturned mushroom reminds me of jelly fish somehow. The moss on the forest floor loves the afternoon rains too. What a wondrous variety we saw!


The hillsides in the mountains were carpeted in a bountiful array of wildflowers!


Everywhere we looked, there was incredible beauty!


Along the creek, the blossoms were especially lush. I especially love the Mountain Chiming Bells with their bells ranging in shades of pinkish blue to the most beautiful clear sky blue.

Now after a good visit with the family, I'm headed back to Arizona, this time accompanied by my daughter who will spend a couple of weeks with me! Not much time for stitching as we plan to do lots of sight seeing while she's with me!