This is NOT FALL!!!

  Looks like summer wasn’t ready to be “kicked to the curb” just yet here in the Midwest.  Today and tomorrow are to be real barn burners ..My outdoor thermometer says 98 degrees on our South deck, which is in full sun and much akin to stepping out into an oven.  My Hibiscus plant, which I thought had born it’s last blossom, must have gotten “wind” of this warm spell..and it decided to celebrate and honor us with a few last huge blossoms!!

We have had a real crop of mushrooms in our backyard this year, and they seem to be growing in a semi circle.   I get a sense of being in the midst of the song “White Rabbit” by Jefferson Airplane…(Go ahead, all you young whippersnappers, figure out who that is…it’s Jefferson Starship, you youthful things!)…There was just no one, no how, who could sing a song like Grace Slick!  Coincidentally, I noticed large “rings” in the retention area down the street from us…I did some research, and found out that the mushrooms and the rings of grass are the work of the Fairies…Yep, that’s right.  There is a scientific explanation for them as well…you might know.

“The name fairy ring comes from an old folk-tale. People once believed that mushrooms growing in a circle followed the path made by fairies dancing in a ring. Fairy rings are found in open grassy places and in forests.

In grass, the best known fairy ring fungus has the scientific name Marasmius oreades. The body of this fungus, its mycelium, is underground. It grows outward in a circle. As it grows, the mycelium uses up all of the nutrients in the soil, starving the grass. This is the reason a fairy ring has dead grass over the growing edge of the mycelium. Umbrella-shaped fruiting bodies, called mushrooms, spring up from just behind the outer edge of the mycelium.

Large rings are created when the older mycelium in the center finally exhausts the soil nutrients and dies. On the death of the central mycelium, the nutrients are returned to the soil and grass can grow again.” 

I choose to believe in the fairy theory…magical paths where fairies dance naked and frolic in our yards…OK, so maybe they wear little tu tu’s….

  I am beginning to let myself get slightly excited about going South this winter.   Slightly would mean that I am jumping up and down and clawing at the camper door… McGuyver has been cleaning out the “belly of the beast”, and replenishing the gas in our Honda generator (which we have never used). 

Last week, we purchased a brand new 22” HD flat screen TV and HD receiver for our kitchen…AND…to be used in the Hiker bedroom.  This meant we had to move the little 13” TV out and move the big bath towels into that cabinet, which hinged to open UP.  Dennis changed that cabinet to open sideways…( I put the hand towels and washcloths in the top of the closet. )  McGuyver then had to change the cabinet where all of the towels had been and is bigger,  (this cabinet hinged to open sideways).  He made that our TV cabinet , and changed the hinges to open UP  for the TV. Whew!  All of this hinge talk is confusing is hinging on insanity.   Too long story made short…, he worked his  magic and we have a new TV for the Hiker, a cabinet in which to put it, and the towels are stowed in a different spot..Got that??…There may be a quiz later.

I will now digress to my Plantar’s Peanuts foot disorder which the great Wizard of Podiatry has declared healed.  Tailor’s Bunions??? Hey!. I can’t even thread a needle.  AND… I thought only “little old ladies” have bunions..oops…I guess my 63 years means that I qualify.  I managed to creat this problem by “rolling out” on the outsides of my feet when I walk….apparently caused by weak hips…God, everything is getting weak or falling apart!!

The good news, …he gave me some Prednisone for the inflammation of my bursa (definition: a sack of red angry swollen junk under outside my little toes).  Bad news..(I just KNEW  there would be some), I will very likely end up having surgery on both feet if it gets bad enough.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? HOOOOOOOO NO!  I’LL JUST GET ME SOME OF THOSE BIG FLUFFY CHICAGO BEAR SLIPPERS AND WEAR THEM FOREVER… (or until the Bears win the Super Bowl, which ever comes first).  I gotta tell ya, these “seamstress” bunions can be pretty painful, but I refuse to spend this winter in the sub-zero temps of Northern Illinois.  Now, …that’s enough about my paws.

The weather peeps are promising that our weather will cool off this weekend and our high predicted for Labor Day is 69 degrees..PERFECTO MUNDO!  I re-arranged our deck, taking down the umbrella table and fountain, and bringing up the fire pit, charcoal grill and little table…

 

 

GET OUT THE MARSHMALLOWS, BRING ON THE SWEATSHIRTS, JEANS AND RED WINE…

LET THE AUTUMN CAMPFIRES COMMENCE!..PULLLLLEASE!