Going on an Explore.

(this was originally posted a week ago, but it disappeared over the weekend.  So, I'll stick it back up again and hope it stays this time!)

Think back, for a moment, to those long, lazy, warm days of your childhood.  When you had hours with nothing to do but ramble around.  Do you remember going for walks and just exploring things?  Just seeing the wonders that are this world, that occur without any help from people?  Or, maybe, occur despite people.

Earlier this week, I decided to go back in the woods and hunt for morels.  It's about the right time, temperature, and wetness. Unfortunately, I don't seem to have any.  At least, two morel hunts in three years haven't turned up any.  Lots of other mushrooms that I took pictures of, hoping to be able to identify them and see if any of them might be safe for my dinner table, but no morels.  I'm wondering where I can get ahold of some spores to 'sow' my own patch of morels for future Mays.

Possibly dryad's saddle, which are edible when young and tender.

Still researching this one before making a definite ID.

Apparently these are called turkey tail mushrooms, and are not edible.  They are pretty, though.

Some unidentified 'little brown mushrooms'  research says probably best to not push your luck in eating.

More unidentified 'little brown mushrooms'.

While my morel hunting was a bust, I did, briefly, remember what it is like to just go on an explore and be in a place solely for the sake of discovering what it holds. 

The woods are greening up now, everything that light lime green color of mid-spring.

I rediscovered the old dead hollow tree.  I had found it once before, about four years ago.  At that time it growled when you got close to it; a coon had a litter of kits in it.  This spring it seems to be vacant, and I was able to take a few pictures of it without fear of a very protective coon mama launching itself into my face if I peered inside. 

It stands probably about 8 foot tall, and at least 2 foot in diameter.

What I see of the old hollow tree at eye level.

Standing on my tiptoes, looking down into the old hollow tree. 

There were also several trees with woodpecker holes in them.  I see woodpeckers all the time, three or four varieties of them, when I am deer hunting in the fall.

I also discovered some wildlife in the woods.  When I got to the wetter end of the woods, where there is often a small 'pond' (overgrown mud puddle), I sat for a while on a fallen tree near the edge of the water. 

 My intent was to be still enough that perhaps I might see some frogs or tadpoles.  I did.

Mama (or Daddy) Frog

Tadpole!

But not only did I see adult and in-development frogs, I also discovered that in my temporary and makeshift aquatic world, I have snails. . .

. . .and crayfish (little, itty bitty crayfish, but still crayfish)!

This one may have been all of an inch long.

I also have a barn cat who thinks she's a dog and likes to go on walks with me.  This walk was longer than she would have preferred, judging by how she flopped down in the shade when I stopped to look for tadpoles.