Turnovers, Muscatine, Beetles. and Even MORE Mushrooms!

Muscatine in Action! Trucks
Bring it! 

Barge is full.  Time to call the Tug. 

Today, we ran in Muscatine, where the temps and cool breeze allowed Cheryl to run ten miles.   It was a pretty good day.   There was a lot of activity and the people I talked to seemed to be getting back to normal...  meaning:  Friendly, mask free and outside.

Tug hooks up while workers close the
lids. 

My favorite Beetle.  The
Dogbane Beetle. 

While running the longer distance, we came across my favorite insect:  The DOGBANE Beetle!   The Bridgestone Tire office near the trail hosts a "nature preserve" around the trail.   Unfortunately, they mowed all the Dogbane plants off at the beginning of the spring this year.   A few of the plants have been popping up and are at least a few inches high.   Normally they are about three feet high by this time of year.   They are very similar to Milkweed.

But the limited amount of foliage has had an unseen impact on the beetle!   I can actually FIND them easily!    Normally, these guys are few and far between on the various underbrush levels.   I have to hunt for them if I am not lucky enough to see one on the top of the plant. 

So shiny and colorful. 

But today,  there were easily 3-5 beetles on each plant!  With those shiny shells, they were easy to spot.   My only regret is that I did not have any brightly colored shirt on so the colors would reflect in the shell.   Last year, I think I had on my orange jersey and it made the carapace shine with a rainbow of colors.

Purple Thistle Puff Ball Flower

I took several shots, because I guess I'm still amazed by these little guys' colors.

After our run and visit to Tee's,  Cheryl offered we check out the Wildcat Caves for Mushrooms.   We went down the same trail where we found Morals earlier this Spring.  However, It appears we missed the Oyster blooms.   We found several trees with "expired" oyster mushrooms on them, so I guess if we had been earlier, we would have been able to find plenty. 

Crowned Coral Mushrooms. 

However,  we DID find several other mushrooms and brought a few home.   We found the Crowned Coral Mushroom.   Many of them were a little older than I would have liked.   They usually have a sharp "peppery " taste to them, so I don't normally throw them in the basket.

Woodear!   We are harvesting these! 

Later on we found a nice cluster of Wood Ear Mushrooms.   ( Or Black Fungus.... For some people of Asian decent)  These guys are edible and have a tasty and chewy texture similar to cabage.   they also explode if you cook them while they are filled with water...  It seems to be a "thing" for people.   Probably like Mexican Jumping beans.

Jack-o-Lanterns. 

They glow in the dark! 

Our last find was a small cluster of Jack-O-Lanterns.   Bright Orange,  Cheryl was able to ID them from a distance.   Besides the color, they also are known to glow in the dark with Bio-Luminescence.  I would not recommend eating them, though.   They are "toxic" and will cause "sever digestive distress" if you eat them.   (Probably will no kill you though... Probably....)

Mulberry Fruit Pies. 

Soft and tender,  She may have to
use this crust for the real pies!

Other than that,  a few butterflies and deer were the only other wildlife sightings.    Cheryl baked up some Mulberry Turnovers/fruit Pies yesterday and they are the BOMB!   Another failure at weight control has been established.   Ah well, you have to live a little, right?   The problem is I seem to want to enjoy all of life's offerings with very little moderation.   I guess I will have to work on it.

10 miles in Muscatine!  Yeah! 

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Wednesday.   It was certainly a pleasant time to be outside.   But whenever we go to Muscatine, it seems we can do little else.   Time simply will not wait for us.  So  we might as well enjoy the time we have...  Thanks for stopping in.