A Late Summer Rain Brings Iowa Mushrooms!

Summer rain Brings out the Chanterellesand other
Mushrooms.

 Last night, it rained and thundered and lightnening-ed....  and continued well into the morning.   For this reason,  Cheryl and I skipped the bike ride/run because... one:  Rain.   And two:   We JUST ran a half Marathon!   ( Still,  Cheryl was so eager to get out there and get soaked!  Crazy Person!)

Bright color, fresh specimens! 

After milling around and having nothing to actually do in Iowa City,  we decided to give a go for some Mushroom hunting.  Aside from the Golden Oysters,  This year has been a bust so far.  Only a few fawn mushrooms in the lawn were I water the tomatoes. 

Our daily mushroom grab.   Perhaps
2 lbs. 

Look mom!  No Gills!  (or ridges of
any type....) 

But we were pleasantly surprised when we discovered several species on our search.   I believe there is the possibility that there could be more over the next few days, as the rain water settles into the land.   But we found about 2-3 lbs of various mushrooms that I can't wait to eat!

Small Boletes.   Yumm! 

First,  the Mini Boletes.   One of my favorite and the easiest to ID.  ( Tastes like creme cheese in scrambled eggs....Yummy!)   Too soft for Pizza though.

Bare-toothed Russulas.  ( Brittle gills.) 

Second.   Brittle Gills!   Also known as Russula mushrooms.   These guys..if you find the right ones. ( Lots of different Russulas that look alike)  taste like Almonds!  The ones I brought home I did the "taste test" to see if they taste "sharp"  ( bitter or like pepper...) I found no sharp flavor, so I'm very excited to fry them up.  They are not called "brittle" for nothing.  Most of them did not make the trip still in one piece.

The spore print will have to decide it. 

Purple Cort.. Or Blewit?  Scaly top
suggest a Cort...

We also discovered a Blewit ( lapista Nuda)   We think.   The jury is still out until I get a Spore Print.   The color of the spores should be Pink... not rusty brown.   If it is a Blewit,  I will finally work up the courage to eat one.   ( they are a choice edible.)  But since so many  Purple Corts hang out in the same forests around here,  sometimes it is difficult to ID.   And last year, I was too chicken to try them. (not poisonous, just bad tasting/tummy ache possibility)

Smooth Chanterelle.   Wonder how it gets its name. 

And finally,  the Chanterelles!  Fresh!  HUGE!  Chanterelles from a new species. ( family, sub-species...whatever.)  The Cantharellus Lateritus.   Also known as the "Smooth Chanterelle"   We found a LOT of them... and there were many many more out there.   A first we thought these were Lobster Mushrooms ( another tasty edible... Cheryl buys them from the Mushroom place and loves them.)

Very similar to a Lobster mushroom.. But Lobsters are
larger in size. 

 But they were rather small compared to the Lobster.  ( a parasite mushroom that genetically takes over Milk caps mushrooms and Russulas!  How cool is that?)  But we have ID-ed them now and are very confident that they are the Smooth Chanterelles.   Note the lack of ridges under the caps.   I managed to find a "normal" chanterelle for comparison. 

Compare to the "false Gills" or a "normal" Chanterelle.

Either way,  both the Lobster and the Chanterelles are choice edibles.  We will have to spend some time cleaning them all up because, being so fresh after that rain, they popped up through the mud and clay.  Most of them are rather dirty.

So,  I'm off to clean and cook a few up.  I'll probably begin with the Boletes and Russulas since they are the most fragile.  And they are the ones that will probably all be mine.   I'll have to see if Cheryl even wants any.

The 2019 Madison Mini Half Marathon. How To Win At Losing...

Cheryl beats the Badger... Again. 

Another Madison Mini Half-Marathon finished.   And Cheryl set a new PR for the course... taking almost a full 2 minutes off of her previous best.  As you can imagine,  she is very disappointed that she had no excuses this morning, because the weather was actually... kinda nice.   Nothing irritates Cheryl more than Having to actually... "Try."   But she did put forth an effort.  And although she did not win an age group award at this race, ( she never does...  All those 45+ year old Gazelles....) She did put in a solid performance that she is mostly proud of. 

She looks so sad and
disappointed.

I still try to offer encouragement,  telling her it was just a fluke that the Sun disappeared behind the clouds,  the temps remained under 80 degrees, and the humidity was low.   If any of these factors had been in play,  I'm sure she would have done as badly as she had hoped.   Hey, I'm just trying to help.

So here is the break down:
2015  First time running the Maddison Mini.   1:43:59

Because of effort, she does
not "lose" like she had
prepared for. 

2016 Coming off an injury year:  1:47:15
2017  Skipped due to injury....  paid all that money and no refunds!  Grr.
2018  A year of heat and humidity:  1:43:55

This year!  2019:  1:42:00!

Mild Weather forces her to run
her best. 

  Pace 7:48 minute mile.
214 out of 2048 runners.
6th in her age group.

I'm formulating a theory on how this year is panning out.   I'll have to wait until the end of December to truly have all the information and Data to fill the narrative.  I can't wait to see where it goes.

At the Jon's

At the Finish

But enough about that.   Here are the Details:   After an early rise,   visit for coffee and donuts, and a trip to the Port-A-Jons,   Cheryl entered her corral.    I did not go very far ahead this year, because most of the time I miss her in the beginning anyway.

At her gate. 

Cheryl climbs in,  the Volunteer
watches. 

Instead, I selected a nice perch on a set of steps overlooking the start line.  The theory was that I would just take random shots of the crowd as they ran by and try to find Cheryl in the mix.... as Usual.

She unwraps the ribbon, floating
the ballon in my field of view. 

Lady with red Balloon stops in
front of me. 

And then a Lady arrives infront of me with this HUGE balloon.   On the side it read: "We Are Here."  I'm assuming it was so her runner could ID them from the other spectators.   As cool of a plan as that was, it was of no help to me.   The balloon rose up just in my field of sight.  She did move it a little, but the camera seemed to love to focus on that big thing and most of my early shots came out blurry.

My camera LOVED that balloon.  Focusing on it as the runners ran by. 

Almost miss Cheryl a second time. 

I call out her name,  

I skipped ahead to Mile 1.5 and almost missed Cheryl as she rolled by.   She was wearing the "invisible colors" of  bright coral.   Next to "black" in winter,   it was a color that LOTS of people were wearing this race.   I made the mistake several times thinking Cheryl was coming,  only to see it was someone else.

Cheryl gives me the backward hand wave. 

Cheryl at Mile 8

She runs by again. 

Off to Mile 8.   Again,  I called out to her and she found me.   She waved as she ran past. 

Cheryl at Mile 13.  

She waves as she nears the final
leg of the race. 

Lots of colorful Flowers. 

On my way to the finish line,  I pass
through the Botanical Garden.

While traveling back to the Finish line,  I stopped by the Botanical Gardens and snapped a few pics of the Pretty flowers and Fish.   My pictures do not do them any justice.   I love University gardens.   It reminds me of the ones at Michigan State.  ( Which where HUGE! and very diverse)

Almost there. 

Cheryl runs towards the finish

Near the finish,  I managed to capture more blurry pictures of her from the garden and then as she ran towards the finish.   I had to really huff it to get that last shot.   She was running downhill while I had to run uphill and behind the building to catch her.  Still,  I managed to snap a few just before she crossed the finish line.

Showing off the Medal

The Center spins! 

Cheryl grabbed her goodies and was thrilled with her time.   Not an overall PR, but a course record for her.   Almost 2 full minutes faster!  Time to Celebrate!

The beer of Offering. 

On to the 14 mile.  Party Time. 

They offered a wonderful Raddler ale.  Raspberry and lemon.   Cheryl said it tasted like Breakfast, and drank it down like water after running a half-marathon.   Which kinda makes sense...if you think about it. 

Cheryl is thirsty!

Receiving a Blessing. 

I fed the Ducks the Cheese puffed corn while Cheryl guzzled the beer.   Overall, I think she was happy.  It was almost like being blessed by the Saints.... or something.

My famous Leg Massage.

Mild weather was to Blame. 

So that is the Madison Mini Half-Marathon 2019 sum up.  The Weather was mild.  Cheryl ran fast. Cheryl celebrated with Beer.  And she did not walk this time.   I could also add that she was fully healthy,   has been riding her bike ( because of me.)  and got a great leg massage from me. 

Super Food?  OR Supper Tasty?

I should also note that she has been taking her "mushrooms" again.  ( Reishi hot chocolate) and Cordycepts.  I only mention these so Future Cheryl will understand why she ran so fast.   Personally,  I think the Mushrooms are more "Tasty Placebo" and not  a "Secret, Super Runner Enhancing Drug."   I love my Lion's Mane coffee! 

I love my Mushroom
Coffee.

And if Cheryl believes the Reishi makes her sleep better and the Cordycepts help her breathe deeper...  I say:   "More power to ya!   And buy me some more Lion's Mane Coffee while you are at it..."

Thanks for stopping in and wishing her luck!

Madison Mini-Half-Marathon Packet Pickup... With Mushrooms!

 Today was the Packet Pick-up for Cheryl's Half Marathon in Madison.  She has done this race several times now and we know what to expect...most of the time.  So most of our day has been spent traveling to Wisconsin and preping for the race.

They are predicting a hot day tomorrow, so we plan on Cheryl failing miserably.   Similar to last year,  the course is under construction and will be humid.  But Cheryl insists that this is the only race at this time. ( Not true,  there is a Watermelon 10K in Muscatine on the same day....)

We looked up her name on the massive banner they have.  Her name is on several of these banners... even on races she did not show up for.  (See last year's blog post.)   She also wanted to buy the half marahon race shir so she would have her name on that.   She loves her previous shirts so much,  she wears them all the time.

The expo was typical.   And having seen most of these things before,  we headed out for our Hotel room.

The cool thing about the location of this Country Inn is the close proximity to some bike trails.

Chicken fat bolete.

Wonder why they call it that???

  We walked these trails before and searched for Mushrooms,  finding a few here and there.  The BIG find in this day time of year was the Suillus americanus.  Also  known as the Chicken fat Bolete.   They are NOT Boletes, however.    But what family they live in is not really a concern.   Are the Edible?   The answer would be yes... If you clean and peal off all this gooy slime off the top and sides.

Veil still attached. 

Peeling back, reveals the clean
yellow pores on the underside. 

The ones we discovered were still fresh and the veil had not yet broken free from the cap.   After peeling back the membrane,  the pores on the underside were visible and so fresh.

Also note,  it is bruising brown where
I touched it. 

peel off outer skin to eat the flesh. 

  Instead of blue, these mushrooms bruise brown... another characteristic in ID-ing them. ( Special note:  They also stained MY FINGERS!   The brown stain  has finally faded after  several hours...)

Note the slate/purple gills and veil ring
around the stem.   It bruised yellow...
Possibly toxic, but not deadly. 

Unknown Meadow Mushroom. 

Other than that,  there was not much else to note.  Apparently, there had been flooding here in Wisconsin as well in the spring... and Now it is very dry.   We did not look too closely for any other species, choosing to head back to our room and ry to rest before the big race.

Tomorrow, if the internet, weather and everything else proves cooperative,  I will hopefully be able to post pictures  of the race and recap the events.   Wish us luck!