Knitting, Botany, Mycology, Nature, Adventure, and Life... in no particular order.
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Fells Fungi Fun
Today the rain managed to hold off and allowed for a beautiful hike in the Middlesex Fells. (Check it out.) A friend and I went and started off near the Botume House and then just followed the fire roads and some of the trails so we ended up walking by Spot Pond and then over along another smaller pond. For that part we followed the blue Cross-Fells trail for a ways, which had some fun ups and downs.
In the smaller pond there were lots of lilly pads, many of which are in flower right now. Definitely worth checking out if you live nearby.
However, in addition to flowers we ran across many fungi! There were little orange jelly fungi, small orange cup fungi, little brown mushrooms coming out of logs. some pinky Russula looking things, and this little fella near a bridge we crossed.
It was hidden amongst some leafy liverworts and mosses there. However the most exciting find of the day just might be some excellent white slime mold plasmodia! Those myxomycetes were getting ready to finish turning into fruitbodies, but they still had some plasmodial trails. Very fun to see. If I had time to go back in a couple days, and if the weather stays rain free, they would be fun to collect and identify.
So nature and fungi are out and ready to be discovered. Throw on your hiking boots, grab your hand lens and go have some fun! I sure did!
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Meringue mushrooms I made for the holiday party this month. When I get a few minutes to myself I plan to make a whole bunch more. Thanks to my colleague Choi for the photo!
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Anniversary!
Well, now that today’s workday is over I have officially been at my job for 6 years! It seems like 3 Nov 2003 was an awfully long time ago, and I guess it was. Looking back it is hard to comprehend all I have done, learned, affected, and continue to work on.
Some things I have had the opportunity to do in the past 6 years:
- Take a 3 week course in Miami on Biodiversity of Tropical Plants
- Participate in workshops on: Southeast Asian plant family identification, identifying diatoms, identifying lichens
- Go to Eagle Hill in Maine to take courses for professional development on Slime Molds (Myxomycetes), Bryophytes (twice!), and Hypogeous Fungi (truffles and stuff)
- Refresh my Latin and learn some German
- Take a mycology course
- Listen to countless fantastic speakers
- Go to a large Botany conference in Chicago
- Become a member of the IPM-WG and go to the working group meeting 2 times
- Work with wonderful, intelligent, compassionate and friendly people
- Learn a lot about databases and how to test them
- Give tours to all different people of all different ages
- Help with research projects
I can’t even begin to estimate how many specimen I have filed, and I could probably get estimates on the number of things I have sent on loan or databased but I think I would rather not know. I’ve corresponded with people all over the world and I’ve helped people translate English into Latin for publications. I have found things thought to be lost, and I have probably “lost” some other things. I’ve made my own field collections with my own collecting permit (and still need to finish the identifications!), I’ve gone on walks, and I even attended several forays (for bryophytes and for fungi). I have made many friends in many places who study many things.
I have not finished everything the previous person had not finished. I have not managed to knock the ever-growing piles of things to do down to a tiny pile, I have not finished every project I have started, but I also have not been miserable. Not once! Stressed and overwhelmed at times, but still happy with my job. I have watched at least 9 co-workers move on to other jobs, graduate studies, and places… not including graduate students and post-docs whom have also left.
And after these 6 great years I wonder what I will do in year 7. Will this be my final year? Is it time to move on to graduate school or some other place? Will I accomplish something great, take on some amazing project, complete some of the things I have been trying to finish for almost as long as I have been here?! I have no idea, and THAT is pretty exciting.
So here’s to you, job I love and that I have gown and changed with! Thank you for the past 6 great years and uncountable opportunities! Tonight I’ll raise a beer, some knitting needles, and perhaps even a field guide to you… and I’ll be back in the morning to see what is in store next!
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Slime Mold Ahoy!
With all the wet weather we’ve been getting some slime molds (mycomycetes) coming up in the bark mulch outside work. Here is one almost mature. Commonly called the bubble gum slime mold (well as common as any slime mold) it is a Lycogala. It’s spores will be a lovely lavender color when mature.
