The Rainy Season Brings Mushrooms

The summer brings on the rainy season here. This is not, however, anything like Washington State, where the skies remain clouded over for days, weeks, sometimes months with intermittent rain. No, here the rain clouds roll in with some amazing speed, dump rain so hard I sometimes fear for my plants, often with thunder and lightening tagging along (we've actually had thunderstorms almost every day of the week recently), and then sweep away to bring back the sun. Sometimes, it even rains while the sun is shining. I have learned it's a wise thing to close the windows in the car while at the gym, as more than once I've walked in the doors seeing a sunny sky, then heard the rain start halfway through my run. It's still hot as ever, and with the rain the humidity is very cloying at times.

I am liking it, though. Things grow like crazy now that there is so much rain. When we first moved here, our trailer was very overgrown, and I wondered how it got that way since we barely had to mow the lawn all winter. Now, I know what happened. Things are turning very green and lush, and our boys love running around in the rain. It's so warm outside, I am happy to oblige them.

The most interesting thing I've seen, though (and the reason for this post), were the mushrooms I found growing under my pepper and tomato plants this week. Wyatt was fascinated by them and eagerly asked if we could eat them. Um, yeah, don't think so - I'm not too up on my mushroom collecting abilities.

It sure would be nice if these were edible, though. I miss fresh mushrooms. They do carry them here every so often, but they are often going bad already. I have taken to smelling the packages before buying. If they smell like mushrooms, I count myself lucky and we enjoy a rare treat. If not, well, back on the shelf they go.