Magnificent Macedon and its many mushrooms

The Avenue of Honour

Luke and I visited Macedon - the township and the mountain - yesterday in search of autumn colour. Macedon's Avenue of Honour, a stretch of road lined by pin oaks, is renowned for its autumn display, but we were probably a week or so too late to see it in its full glory. A lot of leaves were already on the ground.  

But once I spotted the fungii, I didn't care about the trees and their leaves. There were some growing beside the road...

...but in a paddock beside the road there was a veritable wonderland of fungii growing, including quite a few amanita mushrooms - the red ones with the white spots - which are like something from a fairy tale.

We also visited one of the open gardens in the area, Tieve Tara, which is very pretty. 

 Autumn carpet

 Tiny snail 

 Pond 

 Geese

Fountain 

 Leaf carpet

There were mushrooms there, too

Then we drove up to the top of Mt Macedon to see the memorial cross. There were amanita mushrooms growing under the pine trees there, but you've probably seen enough fungii in this post already.

 The cross (with flowers from Anzac Day)

View from the lookout

It was a fun day out, but the fungii were the highlight for me. 

More Fawkner Park fungi

I walked through Fawkner Park today on the way to the Alfred Hospital (more tests...) and I kept my eyes open for fungi. I was not disappointed - and these are only some of the fungi I saw.

I passed by a lot of beautiful deep red fallen autumn leaves on my way too, but I didn't have time to stop and take photos of them. I will be taking lots of photos of autumn leaves tomorrow though (and probably bringing quite a few home with me for flat lays) because Luke and I are going to Macedon, which is known for its autumn display. Have I mentioned I love autumn? 

More mushrooms

I went to take my hired crutches back to the pharmacy at the Alfred Hospital this afternoon, but it was closed. It wasn't a wasted outing though because I found a heap of fungi growing across the road under the trees along the edge of Fawkner Park (it doesn't take much to make me happy).  

 Pixie umbrella

 I spotted this one growing beside the Yarra on 

my way home 

Golden hour

Happy discoveries

I sprained my ankle on Friday - more than a twist, but not serious enough to need medical attention - and the most annoying thing about it is that I can't walk to work this week. I can walk almost normally again now (albeit with some pain), but I should do the sensible thing and let it rest. Boo.

So it was with some irritation that I set out for the tram stop this morning, but then when I was passing Gosch's Paddock I spotted a big patch of mushrooms growing in the grass and then I wasn't annoyed anymore. I took a photo then kept walking and I saw more mushrooms! And then more! There were A LOT of mushrooms. I love autumn.

I made another happy discovery at lunch time. I went in to the newsagent near work to get my daily Pepsi Max and Freddo Frog fix and I don't know why, but I checked to see if they stocked Flow magazine. I was sure they wouldn't because it's a run-of-the-mill, not-too-cool-for-school newsagent, not at all hipsterish like Mag Nation, where I got the last one.  But they had it! I was stunned. And then I was doubly stunned because it was fully HALF THE PRICE I paid at Mag Nation! Wow. 

I might start reading it tomorrow - it's a public holiday here tomorrow for Anzac Day, which makes it the third short working week in a row (wooh!). Last week was only two days long for me because I had Tuesday off as well for mum's visit, which is a subject for another (belated) post.

  

Tense knee caps, fungus, Fitzroy wanderings

Awesome Collingwood ghostsign (or is it Fitzroy?)

At pilates today, while I was executing a bend over hamstring stretch thingo, the instructor told me to "relax my knee caps". I laughed instead. 

There's a crop of little mushrooms in the garden out the front of my flat. There's more of them today than there were yesterday. I'll check again in the morning. (I tried taking photos but they're too small and too far from my reach to get a decent one.) 

Luke and I had lunch over in Fitzroy today then wandered the streets and alleyways, looking at street art and ghostsigns. 

 Inward goods

 Manufacturing chemist

Mesmerising eyes

George Costanza

Then we went home and I napped for hours.  

Creature of habit, mushrooms, random connections

Bare branches

I saw two Nankeen Night Herons again tonight, hunting for their dinner at the river's edge. One was standing in the exact place I saw it last night, perched on the same rock, staring into the water in the same direction. It must have found a tasty meal there. Its companion was standing in the water about a metre from the bank. The tide must have been very low, because the night heron is not a long-legged bird. 

Bad phone photo taken in dark with flash because, 

as always, I was running late this morning

There's several patches of mushrooms growing along the river. They must have sprung to life after the recent heavy rains we had...though I don't think it takes much rain to encourage the fungus.

I've made another new musical discovery. Stella Angelico, another Melbourne singer-songwriter, has been on my radar for a while, but I only just got around to looking her up last night. This is from the EP she released last year (with her band The Switch). It's very Amy Winehouse-esque.  I love it - and the rest of the EP. I don't actually own any Amy Winehouse albums, but I probably should.  

Speaking of music and discoveries, a man from the Netherlands  (Hi Michael!) found my blog by searching for the lyrics of a Gabby Young song called Mole, which I blogged about a while ago. He wrote:

Not finding any I ended up searching for "can't we be children about this". There's two hits for these exact words, both leading to this page.

Wooh!  It's both odd and awesome that my blog was the only source. I get a kick out of the random ways people connect on the internet. 

Mushroom season, gypsy music, Friday

Fungus....or is it bun-gus?

It's mushroom/toadstool season! I saw this little tuffet on the bank near Swan Street bridge when I was walking to work this morning. I don't eat fungus (I likefood that doesn't smell like dirt), but I like taking photos of it.

I have a new musical fixation - Gogol Bordello,  a"gypsy punk" band from New York. There's eight people in the band, some of whom are from Eastern Europe with actual gypsy blood. They're kinda bonkers. I love it, which isn't a surprise because a few other bands I've recently   got into - such as the Crooked Fiddle Band, and Mojo Juju and the Snake-oil Merchants - have gypsy leanings.

While I'm talking about eccentric bands, I can't believe I have never mentioned Russian schlock-horror trio Messer Chups here before. They're ace too.  

Yay, the weekend is here! I don't have any big plans. I just like not working, no matter how much I like my new job. 

Fungii, night lights, skywheel

Look at all this fungus! I've seen numerous varieties on each side of the path walking to work beside the river. Lucky I took photos when I did, because they've all been lopped by the council mower man now. (Mushroom murderer!) 

Yesterday (when I was on late shift) was the first time I've been at my new job when it's got properly dark. It's so nice to look out and see the city lights all around. It really does help to ease the gloom of shorter days. There's too much reflection to take a photo unfortunately. Here's one of tonight's setting sun.

The Skywheel is back in town! It seems odd to bring it back for the cooler months, but I'm glad it's here.



Mushies!

It's mushroom season. I saw these beside the river on my way to work this morning. It was a beautiful sunny morning and the mushrooms were sparkling with dew. I didn't have time to take any close-ups, dangit! I love photographing fungus (I won't eat it though).

This reminds me of when I was a kid growing up on a farm. One autumn my brother and I went mushrooming and there were HUNDREDS of mushrooms growing by a stream, each one bigger than the last until we were picking mushies as big as dinner plates! We were in paroxysms of delight. We took home as many as we could carry.

Mum cooked them and the whole house stank of mushrooms. Dad was the only one who ate them and...er...he was a little unwell afterwards. Oops.

Tomorrow is Friday already! Yay! Gotta love a three-day working week.