Mushrooms, Agate, and More!

 Not more mushrooms, you say. Sorry, but they're something we get excited about due to their never ending variety and surprise appearances. I think you will be amazed, however,  by a huge agate that Gail found.  

As we pulled into the parking lot on November 20, at Ocean Beach, Gail remarked  that she had a strong feeling she was going to find a big agate.  We joked about it and I teased her that she probably jinxed herself.

About 20 minutes later she screamed and went running to this agate that was quite visible on a large slab of rock.  Good thing we were almost the first people on the beach!

On the drive home, we named it The Premonition Agate.

Later in the morning, we drove down to Florence and hiked across the dunes to the long beach there. This is the beach where in 1970 the highway department blew up a dead whale with dynamite, showering people and cars with large chunks of blubber over 800 feet away.  There are several YouTube videos of the debacle.

Back to the agate.  You can appreciate its translucence by back lighting it with a flashlight in the dark.

Most agates form inside of pockets in lava.  Sometimes the agate forming minerals run out before the pocket is filled, leaving a hollow center like a geode.

Below are some fungi photos taken over the past month.

This is not a fungi photo, but Gail deep cleaning behind the stove.  We have been painting the interior of the house this past month, and have now finished the living room, dining room, and kitchen.  This project keeps opening a new can of worms with every new wall we paint.  We got rid of four satellite stereo speakers that looked dorky, and I ran new cable under the house to the living room wall cabinets where I put in new bookshelf speakers.  The sound quality is much improved!

Amanita muscaria or fly agaric is beautiful, but toxic.

This is a developing one, before its cap spreads out.

This is foam churned up during a storm the previous night.  November 26.

There were a number of these little worm like animals on the sand.  I'm waiting to see if anyone on iNaturalist can identify it.  

Note: I just got an iNaturalist suggestion of sea cucumber.  I think that is correct after looking at other images.

The big leaf maple as seen from our back deck.  We love its form and its changes through the seasons. It is an old tree, and lost its largest trunk just a few weeks after we moved in.  We hope the rest remains for many more years.