Perfumes of the day

 Books will always be superior to Kindle just because of the smell. I am totally trying to make the house smell fresher just by filling it up with books. Normally we smell like the average medieval alchemist's hovel. Our attempts at making gold are about as successful, too.

But there is another, mysterious smell in our neighborhood to be tracked. Maybe butterfly bush or blooming kudzu, its flowery and overwhelming an idiosyncratic to the South. Smells like a lovestruck grandma who has gussied up for a date. I love it! 

Fungus chasing, because mushrooms run slowly

Sequoyah Hills is a Fungus Fun Land thanks to abundant pine mulch on the running trail. Really, fungi was EVERYWHERE , creeping amongst the poor unwary residents. We cut an unstealthy path, diving like excited seagulls onto interestingly shaped shrooms and squawking at the abundance of low slimey gooze.

We surmised that fungi prefer acid environs. These got plenty of sun so darkness requirements for shrooms is a myth. They have nothing much to root them down so we hypo that they can get nutrients from the whole surface since they seem to thrive even when sideways lying down. Or perhaps they have some kind of super efficient root that works when barely touching dirt.

 Fungus hunting is hot work so we took a break at the Talahi Fountain. Only to find that it had been BUBBLED by vandals! AWK!

 A short dance exhibition.

Then back to the hunt. Pretty sure the neighborhood watch has labelled us as "suspicious activities". 

Back to school, er...wait, we never left.

The sibs wanted to go to a splash pad for some R&R. This is where we went;

 Multi levels of splashing fun with natural filtration, free parking, and bonus nature walks. On the downside, the poison ivy was abundant. On the up, it was an opportunity for the sibs to learn to identify jewelweed, the kryptonite of urushiol itch.

 Jewel weed conveniently grows near ivy. One might say it grows like a weed. Bwahaha.
We got a demonstration on how fairies wash their hair. Fairy hygiene is a bit lax.  This led to a lesson about water purity and the evidences of clean water. Tiny crayfish are a good sign. See this little guy? Really, there is one there.

 Fresh water mussel shells, half gnawed, indicate both good water and an abundance of raccoons.

 Mermaids love mountain streams.

 A wild honeybee visited, washing her face and legs. Funny about bees, they respond to human conversation as though they understand.  We all had a little chat with her and she turned politely to each speaker. She was a very attentive listener.

 Plenty of wild cherries to lead into winter

 All Heal looks like beehives with corsages. It makes a tea for pleurisy or after-winter tonic but it tastes as horrible as echinacea. Blah.
Then we stopped to check out an empty farmhouse in hopes of realtor signage or some indication that it may be buyable or leasable. Wouldn't this make a great place to have a....something????? The house is victim to bad remuddling but the barn it top notch!

Improving nutrition, again...

Once again we are fine tuning our food choices. I should pay more attention to Nerd Fitness and less to Epicurious. And even less to the plethora of quasi-urban Southern Old/New foodies.
On the good side, the children got to eat as many fresh cherries as they wanted last week. And if portion control is so important then Chicken and Waffles miniaturized into these tiny sandwiches should be safe, right?
Maybe if I eat from Girlie's tiny tea party set my portions would be appropriately sized for my tastes. 

Difficult

Blog gremlins are plaguing me. Can't post images and what fun is a blog without images of something.