I think I found the secret to great photography. Spend the day helping out a mate in the bush collecting firewood and get half toasted on 2 different pain killers for back ,legs and shoulders. Then stumble around in the bush finding your way back by the sound of the chainsaw. Taking pictures of anything you think is pretty in a half dazed state. Works for me. Must have taken over 80 photos. Im on a bit of a photography kick lately.
I was watching Dave Canterburys youtube clip on bug out bags and got some good ideas to upgrade to mine. Such as placing my tourniquet on the harness strap to save room from placing a full IFAK inside and incorporating a Vietnam era hammock system However these are hard to find in Australia but I found a new version at Sord Australia Military products. Depending on if I change my bag or not Im also thinking of adding a Cold Steel Spetnaz shovel. I have several Platatac Gonk mats that may fit. These can be used as kneeling pads and seats aswell as a ground pad and are non inflatable.
Dave Canterbury BOB
Sord Torrid Jungle Hammock
https://www.sordaustralia.com/torrid-jungle-hammock-multicam
Platatac Gonk mat
https://platatac.com/catalogue/sleeping-gear/platatac-3-4-gonk-mat-v2.html
Dont worry mushroom season will be over shortly no more pictures. These were on old cypress stumps. They were in a biodiversity area and I had to ask permission to gain access. Gymnopilus junonius or Laughing Jinns
Out taking pictures of mushrooms, trees and streams and seeing how the lighting and different angles work. Its very relaxing taking pictures of mushrooms, almost meditation like.
Must have taken over 50 photos. Some work and some dont. Some just really appeal and hit the spot. I dont know what half these mushrooms are but its fun, taking the pictures, then researching later to try and identify them.
You know how you somehow end up getting smoke in your eyes wherever you stand around a fire? Well, it turns out that’s not a curse! It can explained with physics or more precisely thermal conduction and convection. Or every time the smoke hits your eyes you can say rabbit rabbit rabbit!
Found these little mushys growing all up and down a log. Looked like a little fairy wonderland in there.
Mushroom foraging tour run by the String and Salt cooking school in Warragul Victoria, hosted by Michelle and Mel and an honorable mention and thanks to Dave who cooked up a great meal.
We started by meeting at the Streatside Cafe and Eatery for complimentary coffees and headed off to 4 or 5 different properties looking at many of the edible and not so edible mushrooms of the Gippsland area.
We were supplied with a 12 page handout covering code of practice, parts of a mushroom, shapes of the caps and stems, gills , pores and spines. We received an explanation of taking spore prints and tips in identifying edible from toxic and not so edible fungi.
We covered Pine Mushrooms, Field Mushrooms, Slippery Jacks and Slippery Jills, Birch Bolete, Shaggy Mane, Shiny Cap, as well as the poisonous species of Death cap, Yellow Staining Mushrooms and fly Agaric.
A great six hours, good company, good conversations and detailed instruction. We ended the day with a luncheon in the hills prepared by Dave of Wild Mushroom Stroganoff, Polenta and a Foraged Green Salad with a glass of wine around a fire. The best part South Australian Beer. Cant go past a Coopers Pale.
I probably should have been taking notes throughout but it was one of those days I just decided to enjoy the experience. Well worth doing a great day out. I came away with a great deal of knowledge and at-least I can now tell what a Death Cap looks like.
Needles grow in clusters of 2,3 and 5. Pines with clusters of 2 are red pines, pines with clusters of 3 are yellow pines. Pines with clusters of 5 are white pines.
Im placing this here because on the day I could not remember which was which. Saffron milk caps only grow under Yellow Pines.
Had to put this off for a few weeks. I now know why they don’t show you how to do this on you-tube with stitches in your shoulder and doped up to the eye balls on pain killers but I got it done.
I haven’t been posting much. Since my stay in hospital a few weeks ago. I have had a CT of my neck and a camera down my throat where they have found a lesion and I have to go back in a couple of weeks for a biopsy. A MRI on my pancreas, waiting for the report. A heart monitor, waiting for report. Had an eco-cardigram cancelled on me for not having the adequate required ventilation system for a high risk patient and need to find another hospital to have it done. A melanoma removed from my shoulder leaving me with a 60mm scar and may have to be referred to a surgeon to have more taken out. Lots of ideas for articles but getting more and more run down and no energy. It seems like Im spending more time in hospitals and doctors surgery’s than at home. By the time Ive helped a mate out with driving to keep his business afloat. I eat takeaway and am in bed by 5pm. Hoping everything will settle down in the next few weeks or Ill be spending even more time in hospitals. Getting lots of pictures of mushrooms I have never seen before but no energy to even try and figure identifying what they are. Xrays of the knees show no arthritis, physio seems to think its some sort of tendonitis.Havent had this many pain killers in a long time I feel like Im perpetually unfocused.
The fifth scout of the area. First lesson dont drive unfamiliar tracks fully loaded with a trailer of firewood. Second lesson always have your recovery gear. Luckily I left my compressor in the 4WD or we would have still been there. Not many camping spots near good water sources.
We slid down that hill of clay with a jack knifed trailer and had to do a 3 point turn by lowering the tyre pressure to 10psi. Had to move a metre at a time by sliding treds under the front tyres.
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