Solitary Snow

On a cold, winter walk in the woods, you'll often find snow yet there was none this day. Strangely, you see some on a few branches where it should have been the first place to melt not the last. Walk closer and it looks like dirty snow. Walk even closer for inspection and suddenly, your focus miraculously transforms snow into fungus. Nature fooled me twice in one walk and in less than 50 feet apart. She's such a joker.

Really. A cursory glance would lead you to believe the heavens had deposited the white fluffy play stuff on this branch. Yet the rains had washed that away. Imagine if the marshmallow Fluff factory decided to rain down their gooey treat upon sweet-toothed kids? Every child would be vying for a drop of "snowflake" on the tongue. Meanwhile, it'd wreck havoc on windshield wipers and tires for the commute home. Let's leave all that to the imagination and instead continue to walk through the amazing world of fungus. It certainly deserves its own taxonomic kingdom as it is a world of its own to explore and respect.

Talented Woodland Animals

Fairy Tales. The great thing about them is how they're so not ordinary. If you're going to let yourself go, it best be your imagination and not your hygeine. Taking a walk in the woods one afternoon, I came upon this scene that made me wonder whether magical creatures lived so close to suburbia. I first noticed it out of the corner of my eyes as I often subconsciously look for tracks, scat, and the creatures that make them. My initial thought was to curse an irresponsible and inconsiderate dog owner until I realized the offending object appeared to be impaled upon a stick. Curious animal and most talented at that. Even more curious was the multitude of excrement on a stick all about. Upon closer inspection of the dessicated feces revealed that indeed, it was not feces at all. Rather, it was some sort of fungus which could be found in all sorts of shapes and sizes wrapped around twigs and branches or merely resting on top. Incidentally, it was only this first fungal oddity that had caught my eye to actually appear turd-like in texture and pattern whereas the others were decidedly more fungal-like. I confess it's quite a detailed observation on poo, but I've picked up after a fair number animals of all sorts.

Stepping Stones

They say when you grow old and decline towards death, you are returning to the state at which you began at birth: unable to think, feed, clothe or care for oneself. These little feet capture it all. A mere few hours old yet the wrinkly folds and peeling dry skin resemble well travelled feet of an old man though he has yet to take his first steps towards adventure. One is a new beginning and the other the close of a chapter yet both clinging to life.

Family Tree

Here's a thought: Science should find a means to grow babies on trees so that mothers need not go through the pains of pregnancy and child labor. It would offer the fathers a bonding opportunity (to wife and child) in helping the process of nourishing the baby too. Plus, family and friends could take part thus creating more of a close knit community around the child particularly since all would be able to witness the miracle of life taking shape and then blossoming as beauty bursts forth at birth. See, pregnancy as we know it is a selfish act on the part of the fetus (parasite-like growth) and of the mother (experiences of gestation and birth). Share the wealth!

All Natural Limeade

A little something extra with your drink. It had a transparency to it like a jellyfish that the camera refused to capture. With the addition of tiny black dots all about, you'd think it were a multi-celled organism in the animal kingdom. Jostling it dislodged it from its anchor point clearly seen in the middle of the jar (to the right of the mass).

I wanted to speak to it like the giant floating brain from Star Trek. Ask it what it's like to be born and raised in the refridgerator door? And how old are you? Maybe even celebrate it's birthday. Would it cry if I poked it? Or ooze like a good bleed? But before wonderment could turn into cruelty, it was unceremoniously tossed out by The Others.