She was not happy with having her winter hiding spot discovered. I covered her back up quickly.

Tags:   European hornet Vespa crabro

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I can only imagine everything that is living under the carpet of leaves. This little spider was a lucky find.

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Rain, and then
the cool pursed
lips of the wind
draw them
out of the ground -
red and yellow skulls
pummeling upward
through leaves,
through grasses,
through sand; astonishing
in their suddenness,
their quietude,
their wetness, they appear
on fall mornings, some
balancing in the earth
on one hoof
packed with poison,
others billowing
chunkily, and delicious -
those who know
walk out to gather, choosing
the benign from flocks
of glitterers, sorcerers,
russulas,
panther caps,
shark-white death angels
in their town veils
looking innocent as sugar
but full of paralysis:
to eat
is to stagger down
fast as mushrooms themselves
when they are done being perfect
and overnight
slide back under the shining
fields of rain.

Mary Oliver

Tags:   Amanita mushroom poem poetry Mary Oliver

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These little puffballs were in bad shape and spores were spilling everywhere. They needed a helping hand to send them into the sky.

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A little squeeze and off they went......

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